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

Shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) have earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-two brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation and fifteen have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $72.70.

A number of research analysts have commented on PSTG shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Pure Storage from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Pure Storage from $62.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Pure Storage from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Lake Street Capital increased their target price on Pure Storage from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Pure Storage from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Pure Storage Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PSTG opened at $67.58 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $65.57 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $57.56. Pure Storage has a one year low of $38.78 and a one year high of $73.67. The firm has a market cap of $22.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 177.85, a P/E/G ratio of 5.26 and a beta of 1.09.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pure Storage

In other Pure Storage news, insider Ajay Singh sold 19,972 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.58, for a total value of $1,229,875.76. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 262,144 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,142,827.52. This trade represents a 7.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.55, for a total value of $6,555,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,316,722 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $479,611,127.10. This trade represents a 1.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 137,178 shares of company stock worth $8,871,746. 6.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of PSTG. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 39.7% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 27,399 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,377,000 after purchasing an additional 7,780 shares in the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in Pure Storage during the third quarter worth $50,000. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in Pure Storage by 10.5% during the third quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 5,588 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $281,000 after acquiring an additional 530 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its holdings in Pure Storage by 2.5% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 50,547 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,539,000 after acquiring an additional 1,251 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 462.2% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,166 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $209,000 after buying an additional 3,425 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

About Pure Storage

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.