Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Stock Price Up 7.6% Following Better-Than-Expected Earnings

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) shares shot up 7.6% on Wednesday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The company traded as high as $72.55 and last traded at $72.8610. 1,029,327 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 71% from the average session volume of 3,537,236 shares. The stock had previously closed at $67.72.

The technology company reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 14.69% and a net margin of 5.14%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share.

Key Stories Impacting Pure Storage

Here are the key news stories impacting Pure Storage this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 results and guidance beat expectations — Pure Storage reported its first $1.06B quarter, non-GAAP EPS of $0.69 (beats) and raised FY27 revenue/profit outlook driven by hyperscaler demand. This underpins near-term growth expectations. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Rebrand and strategic M&A — The company rebranded as Everpure and signed a deal to acquire data?intelligence firm 1touch, signaling a move from hardware-centric storage toward data management/AI capabilities that could expand TAM and gross-margin mix over time. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Bullish analyst/takeaway coverage — Several bullish pieces argue Everpure is capitalizing on hyperscaler AI demand, price increases and NAND procurement shifts that should protect margins and support FY27 growth (supporting a “buy” thesis). Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor presentations and management commentary — Transcripts from Susquehanna and Bernstein conferences and the Q4 earnings call provide detail on product positioning, hyperscaler traction and go?to?market; useful for modeling but not immediate catalysts. Read More. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst/valuation concerns — Some commentary flags supply strains, pricing pressure in segments, and a high valuation (elevated P/E), which can make the stock sensitive to any execution slips. Zacks notes these risks despite the beat. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Mixed analyst ratings — Barclays raised its target to $81 (equal weight) while UBS raised its target to $63 but kept a sell rating; the split shows disagreement on whether rebrand/growth justify the current multiple, contributing to intraday selling. Read More. Read More.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Northland Securities set a $77.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Tigress Financial set a $105.00 target price on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Barclays raised their price target on Pure Storage from $77.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Pure Storage from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Pure Storage presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $94.32.

Insider Activity

In other Pure Storage news, insider Ajay Singh sold 7,178 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.14, for a total transaction of $481,930.92. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 215,091 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,441,209.74. This trade represents a 3.23% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.31, for a total transaction of $7,131,000.00. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 5.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pure Storage

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Winnow Wealth LLC bought a new position in Pure Storage during the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Provenance Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the third quarter valued at about $27,000. Salomon & Ludwin LLC boosted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 108.2% during the fourth quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 383 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 199 shares during the period. Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Pure Storage during the third quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 287.1% during the third quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 329 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Pure Storage Trading Down 2.8%

The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $70.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $77.49. The stock has a market cap of $21.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 116.61, a PEG ratio of 6.45 and a beta of 1.27.

About Pure Storage

Pure Storage, Inc (NYSE: PSTG) is a technology company that designs and sells data storage hardware and software for enterprise and cloud environments. The company is best known for its all-flash storage arrays that are engineered to deliver high performance, low latency and simplified management compared with traditional disk-based systems. Its product portfolio includes purpose-built arrays and software aimed at transactional databases, virtualized infrastructures, analytics and large-scale file/object workloads.

Key product and software offerings include the FlashArray family for block storage and FlashBlade for file and object workloads, together with Purity, the company’s storage operating environment.