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

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-two research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $73.20.

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $77.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $80.00 to $77.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Pure Storage from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Ajay Singh sold 19,972 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.58, for a total transaction of $1,229,875.76. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 262,144 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,142,827.52. This trade represents a 7.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 8,895 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.11, for a total value of $570,258.45. Following the sale, the executive now owns 72,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,675,349.97. This trade represents a 10.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 37,178 shares of company stock worth $2,316,746 over the last three months. 6.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pure Storage

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PSTG. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Pure Storage during the fourth quarter valued at $216,690,000. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership purchased a new position in shares of Pure Storage during the fourth quarter valued at $210,906,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 1,725.3% during the fourth quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,525,208 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $155,124,000 after buying an additional 2,386,864 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Pure Storage by 210.2% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,553,402 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $137,628,000 after purchasing an additional 1,730,123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Pure Storage by 25.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,748,553 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $413,982,000 after purchasing an additional 1,366,458 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

Pure Storage Price Performance

Shares of Pure Storage stock opened at $47.96 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $15.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 126.22, a PEG ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 1.09. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $63.92 and its 200 day moving average is $57.67. Pure Storage has a 1 year low of $44.76 and a 1 year high of $73.67.

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.