Pure Storage, Inc. $PSTG Shares Sold by ABN Amro Investment Solutions

ABN Amro Investment Solutions lessened its stake in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) by 15.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 85,676 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 15,894 shares during the quarter. ABN Amro Investment Solutions’ holdings in Pure Storage were worth $7,181,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in Pure Storage by 8.3% during the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,598 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $134,000 after buying an additional 122 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 40.1% during the 3rd quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 468 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 43,756 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,667,000 after acquiring an additional 152 shares during the period. State of Wyoming increased its stake in Pure Storage by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 1,673 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $140,000 after purchasing an additional 156 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its stake in Pure Storage by 11.8% in the 3rd quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 1,530 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $128,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

Pure Storage Stock Up 4.4%

PSTG stock opened at $73.93 on Friday. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 52-week low of $34.51 and a 52-week high of $100.59. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $70.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $76.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 194.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.75 and a beta of 1.27.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, December 2nd. The technology company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58. Pure Storage had a net margin of 3.74% and a return on equity of 10.60%. The firm had revenue of $964.45 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.50 earnings per share. Pure Storage’s revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ajay Singh sold 7,178 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.14, for a total value of $481,930.92. Following the transaction, the insider owned 215,091 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,441,209.74. This trade represents a 3.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction on Monday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.31, for a total transaction of $7,131,000.00. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 5.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on PSTG shares. Wall Street Zen lowered Pure Storage from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Northland Securities set a $77.00 price objective on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Lake Street Capital raised their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $80.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $110.00 to $105.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.26.

About Pure Storage

Pure Storage, Inc (NYSE: PSTG) is a technology company that designs and sells data storage hardware and software for enterprise and cloud environments. The company is best known for its all-flash storage arrays that are engineered to deliver high performance, low latency and simplified management compared with traditional disk-based systems. Its product portfolio includes purpose-built arrays and software aimed at transactional databases, virtualized infrastructures, analytics and large-scale file/object workloads.

Key product and software offerings include the FlashArray family for block storage and FlashBlade for file and object workloads, together with Purity, the company’s storage operating environment.