Andrew William Fraser Brown Sells 20,564 Shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Stock

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Director Andrew William Fraser Brown sold 20,564 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.31, for a total transaction of $1,075,702.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 24,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,276,364. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Pure Storage Stock Down 1.9 %

NYSE:PSTG traded down $0.99 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $52.32. 2,989,547 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,698,772. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $49.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.92. Pure Storage, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $22.14 and a fifty-two week high of $58.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The company has a market capitalization of $17.00 billion, a PE ratio of 313.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.79 and a beta of 1.15.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The technology company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.10. Pure Storage had a net margin of 2.17% and a return on equity of 12.60%. The firm had revenue of $789.81 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $784.31 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.27 EPS. Pure Storage’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on PSTG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Pure Storage from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Friday, March 15th. They set a “buy” rating and a $65.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $66.00 target price on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Pure Storage has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $50.53.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pure Storage

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PSTG. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Pure Storage during the 4th quarter worth $90,143,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Pure Storage by 24.9% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,091,077 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $359,464,000 after purchasing an additional 2,807,489 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Pure Storage by 5,725.3% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,614,837 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $57,520,000 after purchasing an additional 1,587,116 shares during the period. Spyglass Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Pure Storage in the fourth quarter valued at $36,678,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Pure Storage by 61.5% in the third quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 3,399,759 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $121,081,000 after purchasing an additional 1,294,285 shares during the period. 83.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Pure Storage

Pure Storage, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides data storage technologies, products, and services in the United States and internationally. The company's Purity software is shared across its products and provides enterprise-class data services, such as data reduction, data protection, and encryption, as well as storage protocols, including block, file, and object.