Needham & Company LLC Issues Positive Forecast for Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Stock Price

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) had its target price upped by Needham & Company LLC from $85.00 to $100.00 in a research report released on Friday morning, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $76.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 28th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $93.00 price objective on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, August 28th. Finally, Raymond James Financial increased their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $76.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 28th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pure Storage has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.06.

Pure Storage Price Performance

NYSE:PSTG opened at $82.46 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 201.13, a PEG ratio of 7.75 and a beta of 1.20. Pure Storage has a 1-year low of $34.51 and a 1-year high of $89.10. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $68.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $56.83.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 27th. The technology company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.04. Pure Storage had a net margin of 4.15% and a return on equity of 11.34%. The firm had revenue of $861.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $845.78 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.44 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Pure Storage has set its FY 2026 guidance at EPS. Q3 2026 guidance at EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Pure Storage will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Mona Chu sold 5,155 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.08, for a total transaction of $454,052.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 116,444 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,256,387.52. This trade represents a 4.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Ajay Singh sold 7,014 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.85, for a total transaction of $602,151.90. Following the sale, the insider owned 229,307 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,686,005.95. The trade was a 2.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 663,580 shares of company stock valued at $43,326,205 in the last quarter. Insiders own 5.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pure Storage

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Pure Storage by 0.9% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,268,006 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,915,572,000 after purchasing an additional 308,738 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Pure Storage by 25.9% during the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,075,944 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $401,793,000 after acquiring an additional 1,868,782 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Pure Storage by 1.7% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,273,696 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $417,830,000 after acquiring an additional 123,320 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Pure Storage by 112.9% during the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,926,836 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $283,687,000 after acquiring an additional 2,612,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Pure Storage during the second quarter valued at about $225,203,000. 83.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.