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

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Director Andrew William Fraser Brown sold 20,564 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director now owns 24,400 shares in the company, valued at $1,276,364. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Pure Storage Stock Down 0.9 %

PSTG stock opened at $51.83 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $49.93 and its 200 day moving average price is $41.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.80 and a current ratio of 1.83. Pure Storage, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $22.14 and a fifty-two week high of $58.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 304.90, a PEG ratio of 6.92 and a beta of 1.15.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The technology company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 in the prior year, the firm earned $0.27 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $41.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Friday, March 15th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $65.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.53.

Institutional Trading of Pure Storage

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 1.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 46,793,394 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,666,781,000 after buying an additional 663,465 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Pure Storage by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,294,297 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,115,955,000 after purchasing an additional 567,358 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Pure Storage by 3.4% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,296,843 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $153,054,000 after purchasing an additional 140,541 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Polar Capital Holdings Plc boosted its holdings in Pure Storage by 33.8% in the third quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc now owns 4,068,672 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $144,926,000 after purchasing an additional 1,028,104 shares in the last quarter. 83.42% 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.