Asset Management One Co. Ltd. Increases Stake in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) by 20.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,681 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 630 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Pure Storage were worth $133,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Global Retirement Partners LLC purchased a new position in Pure Storage during the third quarter valued at $28,000. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. purchased a new position in Pure Storage during the second quarter valued at $32,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust purchased a new position in Pure Storage during the first quarter valued at $33,000. Penserra Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Pure Storage during the first quarter valued at $47,000. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Pure Storage by 53.3% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,380 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 480 shares in the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Pure Storage Trading Down 2.8 %

NYSE PSTG opened at $53.43 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.80 and a current ratio of 1.83. The company has a market capitalization of $17.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 314.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.94 and a beta of 1.15. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $40.67. Pure Storage, Inc. has a one year low of $22.14 and a one year high of $58.46.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The technology company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $789.81 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $784.31 million. Pure Storage had a net margin of 2.17% and a return on equity of 12.60%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.27 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pure Storage

In other Pure Storage news, Director Roxanne Taylor sold 36,860 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.76, for a total transaction of $1,981,593.60. Following the transaction, the director now owns 18,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,015,150.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Ajay Singh sold 37,588 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.54, for a total value of $2,012,461.52. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 380,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,389,852.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Roxanne Taylor sold 36,860 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.76, for a total transaction of $1,981,593.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,883 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,015,150.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 6.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on PSTG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Friday, March 15th. They set a “buy” rating and a $65.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.53.

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.