William Blair Reaffirms “Outperform” Rating for Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG)

William Blair reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) in a research report released on Thursday,RTT News reports.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on PSTG. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $60.00 to $56.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $65.00 to $60.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $75.00 to $67.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Oppenheimer assumed coverage on Pure Storage in a research report on Wednesday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $70.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.15.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

NYSE:PSTG opened at $48.19 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.79 billion, a PE ratio of 120.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.54 and a beta of 1.10. 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 has a 12-month low of $31.00 and a 12-month high of $70.41. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $51.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $56.92.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The technology company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $763.77 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $756.59 million. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 17.41% and a net margin of 4.53%. Research analysts anticipate that Pure Storage will post 0.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Pure Storage

In other news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 8,895 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The stock was 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 directly owns 94,446 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,785,578.82. This represents a 8.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Mona Chu sold 25,000 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.32, for a total transaction of $1,258,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 96,639 shares in the company, valued at $4,862,874.48. The trade was a 20.55 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 454,542 shares of company stock worth $24,775,030 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 6.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pure Storage

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,382,095 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $269,798,000 after buying an additional 219,971 shares during the period. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN grew its stake in Pure Storage by 3.2% in the third quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 5,684,218 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $285,575,000 after acquiring an additional 177,559 shares during the period. Bullseye Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Pure Storage by 7.0% in the third quarter. Bullseye Asset Management LLC now owns 84,193 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,230,000 after acquiring an additional 5,500 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Pure Storage by 9.4% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 316,911 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $15,921,000 after purchasing an additional 27,345 shares during the period. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 84,610 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,251,000 after purchasing an additional 5,000 shares in the last quarter. 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.