Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-two analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have issued a hold recommendation and fourteen have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $67.95.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on PSTG shares. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $65.00 to $60.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $67.00 to $63.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $72.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $70.00 price objective for the company.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pure Storage

In other Pure Storage news, CAO Mona Chu sold 20,647 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.50, for a total transaction of $1,063,320.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 75,992 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,913,588. The trade was a 21.37 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.32, for a total transaction of $5,732,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 300,000 shares in the company, valued at $17,196,000. This trade represents a 25.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 354,542 shares of company stock valued at $18,599,030 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 6.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Pure Storage

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sycomore Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Pure Storage during the 2nd quarter worth about $2,259,000. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,153,797 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,469,487,000 after purchasing an additional 368,643 shares in the last quarter. MinichMacGregor Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $6,890,000. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $721,000. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 284.9% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 55,801 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,901,000 after purchasing an additional 41,305 shares in the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

Pure Storage stock opened at $52.99 on Friday. Pure Storage has a 12-month low of $31.00 and a 12-month high of $70.41. The company has a market capitalization of $17.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 132.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.18 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.99 and a quick ratio of 1.96. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $52.06 and its 200 day moving average price is $56.82.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The technology company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.10. Pure Storage had a net margin of 4.53% and a return on equity of 17.41%. The firm had revenue of $763.77 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $756.59 million. On average, research analysts forecast that Pure Storage will post 0.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pure Storage Company Profile

Pure Storage, Inc engages in the provision of data storage and management technologies, products, and services in the United States and internationally. Its Purity software is shared across its products and provides enterprise-class data services, such as always-on data reduction, data protection, and encryption, as well as storage protocols, including block, file, and object.