Cerity Partners LLC Invests $236,000 in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Cerity Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 6,616 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $236,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in PSTG. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Pure Storage by 5,725.3% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,614,837 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $57,520,000 after acquiring an additional 1,587,116 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 1,025.3% during the 3rd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 1,269,927 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $45,235,000 after purchasing an additional 1,157,079 shares during the period. Polar Capital Holdings Plc raised its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 33.8% during the 3rd 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 during the period. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Pure Storage by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 46,793,394 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,666,781,000 after purchasing an additional 663,465 shares in the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO P. Kevan Krysler sold 15,286 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.80, for a total transaction of $807,100.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 507,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,813,107.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO P. Kevan Krysler sold 15,286 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.80, for a total transaction of $807,100.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 507,824 shares in the company, valued at $26,813,107.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 29,283 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.14, for a total value of $1,526,815.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 138,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,200,794.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 286,581 shares of company stock worth $15,266,704. 6.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Pure Storage Trading Down 1.0 %

PSTG opened at $52.44 on Tuesday. Pure Storage, Inc. has a one year low of $22.14 and a one year high of $58.46. 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $51.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 308.49, a PEG ratio of 6.88 and a beta of 1.15.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last announced 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. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 2.17%. The company had revenue of $789.81 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $784.31 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.27 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on PSTG. Raymond James cut shares of Pure Storage from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $52.00 to $63.00 in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $45.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Pure Storage from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $66.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Pure Storage from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $51.63.

Pure Storage Company Profile

Pure Storage, Inc engages in the provision of data storage and management technologies, products, and services in the United States and internationally. Its Purity software is shared across its products and provides enterprise-class data services, such as always-on data reduction, data protection, and encryption, as well as storage protocols, including block, file, and object.