Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC Acquires 616 Shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) by 9.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,042 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 616 shares during the quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC’s holdings in Pure Storage were worth $312,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG grew its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 23.3% in the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 9,201 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $565,000 after purchasing an additional 1,740 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC grew its position in shares of Pure Storage by 23.4% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 96,556 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,931,000 after buying an additional 18,306 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Pure Storage by 155.8% in the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 89,571 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,502,000 after buying an additional 54,557 shares during the last quarter. Korea Investment CORP increased its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 38.2% in the fourth quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 314,582 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $19,325,000 after buying an additional 86,987 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Pure Storage by 18.5% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 243,185 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $15,620,000 after acquiring an additional 37,906 shares during the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

Shares of PSTG stock opened at $57.56 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $18.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 155.57, a PEG ratio of 5.48 and a beta of 1.06. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 52-week low of $34.51 and a 52-week high of $73.67. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $55.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $54.75.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 801,959 shares in the company, valued at approximately $41,709,887.59. This trade represents a 11.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John Francis Murphy sold 6,959 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.17, for a total transaction of $390,887.03. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 19,706 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,106,886.02. This represents a 26.10% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 147,666 shares of company stock valued at $7,819,260. 5.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $40.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $66.00 price objective (up from $53.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Pure Storage from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.95.

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.