P. Kevan Krysler Sells 15,286 Shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Stock

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) CFO P. Kevan Krysler sold 15,286 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.80, for a total value of $807,100.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 507,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,813,107.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

Pure Storage Price Performance

PSTG opened at $49.46 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.83 and a quick ratio of 1.80. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $50.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.22. The firm has a market cap of $16.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 290.96, a PEG ratio of 6.73 and a beta of 1.15. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 1 year low of $22.14 and a 1 year high of $58.46.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The technology company reported $0.27 earnings per share (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 analysts’ expectations of $784.31 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on PSTG. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Pure Storage from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Pure Storage from $41.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $66.00 price objective on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Pure Storage from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $51.63.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pure Storage

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PSTG. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the fourth quarter worth about $90,143,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake 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 valued at $359,464,000 after buying an additional 2,807,489 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 5,725.3% during 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 buying an additional 1,587,116 shares during the period. Spyglass Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Pure Storage during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,678,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted 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 worth $121,081,000 after acquiring an additional 1,294,285 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

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.