Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Price Target Raised to $44.00 at Evercore ISI

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) had its target price increased by Evercore ISI from $42.00 to $44.00 in a research report report published on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the technology company’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Wedbush boosted their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Thursday. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $40.00 to $41.00 in a report on Thursday, June 1st. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Pure Storage from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Friday, August 25th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, August 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Pure Storage currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $42.58.

Pure Storage Price Performance

Shares of PSTG opened at $36.60 on Thursday. Pure Storage has a fifty-two week low of $22.14 and a fifty-two week high of $39.19. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $37.12 and its 200 day moving average price is $30.61. The company has a market cap of $11.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 1,220.41, a PEG ratio of 8.56 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 31st. The technology company reported ($0.17) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.21) by $0.04. Pure Storage had a net margin of 0.63% and a return on equity of 9.03%. The company had revenue of $589.31 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $560.83 million. On average, research analysts forecast that Pure Storage will post 0.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Pure Storage

In other Pure Storage news, CAO Mona Chu sold 5,387 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.49, for a total transaction of $207,345.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 147,188 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,665,266.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Pure Storage news, insider Ajay Singh sold 37,084 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.42, for a total transaction of $1,350,599.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 414,393 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,092,193.06. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Mona Chu sold 5,387 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.49, for a total transaction of $207,345.63. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 147,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,665,266.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 148,320 shares of company stock worth $5,453,744 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 6.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pure Storage

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 11.8% during the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 45,388,246 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,157,854,000 after buying an additional 4,800,883 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 0.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,369,119 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $966,403,000 after buying an additional 203,732 shares in the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich grew its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 98,387.2% during the second quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 19,091,746 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $702,958,000 after buying an additional 19,072,361 shares in the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 4.0% during the first quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 14,395,833 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $367,238,000 after buying an additional 557,025 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 24.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,091,077 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $359,464,000 after buying an additional 2,807,489 shares in the last quarter. 82.98% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.