Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG)

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $75.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 43.08% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on PSTG. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $70.00 price target for the company. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $73.20.

Pure Storage Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE:PSTG opened at $52.42 on Thursday. Pure Storage has a 52-week low of $44.76 and a 52-week high of $73.67. The company has a 50 day moving average of $65.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.21. The company has a market capitalization of $17.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 137.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 1.09.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pure Storage

In related news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 8,895 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.11, for a total transaction of $570,258.45. Following the sale, the executive now directly owns 72,927 shares in the company, valued at $4,675,349.97. The trade was a 10.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Ajay Singh sold 19,972 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.58, for a total transaction of $1,229,875.76. Following the sale, the insider now owns 262,144 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,142,827.52. This represents a 7.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 137,178 shares of company stock worth $8,871,746. 6.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pure Storage

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. McIlrath & Eck LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pure Storage during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pure Storage during the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Compass Financial Services Inc bought a new stake in Pure Storage in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Pure Storage in the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC raised its position in Pure Storage by 49.1% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 644 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 212 shares in the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.