Pure Storage’s (PSTG) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) in a research report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a $75.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock.

PSTG has been the subject of several other research reports. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $66.00 price objective (up previously from $53.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $40.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $77.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pure Storage currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.95.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

NYSE PSTG opened at $51.51 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.83 billion, a PE ratio of 139.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.04 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $50.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.13. Pure Storage has a 52-week low of $34.51 and a 52-week high of $73.67.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The technology company reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $778.49 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $770.03 million. Pure Storage had a net margin of 3.93% and a return on equity of 13.98%. The company’s revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Pure Storage will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Pure Storage

In other news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 872 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.51, for a total value of $44,916.72. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now directly owns 89,351 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,602,470.01. The trade was a 0.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.01, for a total transaction of $5,201,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 801,959 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $41,709,887.59. This represents a 11.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 119,083 shares of company stock worth $6,150,676. 5.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pure Storage

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Voya Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Pure Storage by 13.6% during the 1st quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 390,806 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $17,301,000 after buying an additional 46,723 shares during the last quarter. Compass Financial Services Inc raised its holdings in Pure Storage by 120.9% during the 1st quarter. Compass Financial Services Inc now owns 1,027 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 562 shares during the last quarter. 1248 Management LLC bought a new stake in Pure Storage during the 1st quarter valued at $84,000. Inspire Investing LLC bought a new stake in Pure Storage during the 1st quarter valued at $1,756,000. Finally, Strs Ohio bought a new stake in Pure Storage during the 1st quarter valued at $10,265,000. 83.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Pure Storage

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.