Pure Storage’s (PSTG) “Outperform” Rating Reiterated at William Blair

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reissued by analysts at William Blair in a research note issued on Thursday,RTT News reports.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $59.00 price objective (down previously from $68.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Pure Storage from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on Pure Storage in a report on Wednesday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $70.00 target price for the company. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reduced their target price on Pure Storage from $80.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.15.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:PSTG traded down $0.06 during trading on Thursday, hitting $49.81. 1,976,599 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,683,442. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 124.58, a PEG ratio of 7.86 and a beta of 1.10. The business’s fifty day moving average is $51.31 and its 200-day moving average is $56.95. Pure Storage has a one year low of $31.00 and a one year high of $70.41. The company has a quick ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The technology company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.10. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 17.41% and a net margin of 4.53%. The company had revenue of $763.77 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $756.59 million. As a group, equities analysts predict that Pure Storage will post 0.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 8,895 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.67, for a total value of $450,709.65. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now owns 94,446 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,785,578.82. This trade represents a 8.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.94, for a total transaction of $4,994,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 500,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,970,000. This represents a 16.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 454,542 shares of company stock valued at $24,775,030. 6.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PSTG. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 0.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,153,797 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,469,487,000 after purchasing an additional 368,643 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 1.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,789,480 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,652,735,000 after purchasing an additional 495,183 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 22.5% in the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 4,063,776 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $204,163,000 after purchasing an additional 747,034 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 56.1% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,696,390 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $237,345,000 after purchasing an additional 1,327,873 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 3.4% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,861,621 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $143,768,000 after purchasing an additional 93,106 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

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.