Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Director Andrew William Fraser Brown Sells 20,564 Shares

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Director Andrew William Fraser Brown sold 20,564 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.31, for a total value of $1,075,702.84. Following the sale, the director now owns 24,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,276,364. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Pure Storage Stock Down 1.9 %

Pure Storage stock opened at $52.32 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $17.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 307.78, a PEG ratio of 6.92 and a beta of 1.15. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $49.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.00. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 12 month low of $22.14 and a 12 month high of $58.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The technology company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $789.81 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $784.31 million. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 2.17%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.27 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PSTG has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 target price on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Citigroup started coverage on Pure Storage in a research report on Friday, March 15th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $65.00 target price for the company. UBS Group increased their target price on Pure Storage from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Pure Storage from $41.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $66.00 target price on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.53.

Institutional Trading of Pure Storage

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 46,793,394 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,666,781,000 after purchasing an additional 663,465 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,294,297 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,115,955,000 after purchasing an additional 567,358 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 24.9% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,091,077 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $359,464,000 after buying an additional 2,807,489 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,296,843 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $153,054,000 after buying an additional 140,541 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Polar Capital Holdings Plc boosted its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 33.8% in the 3rd quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc now owns 4,068,672 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $144,926,000 after buying an additional 1,028,104 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

Pure Storage Company Profile

Pure Storage, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides data storage technologies, products, and services in the United States and internationally. The company's Purity software is shared across its products and provides enterprise-class data services, such as data reduction, data protection, and encryption, as well as storage protocols, including block, file, and object.