Champlain Investment Partners LLC Has $288.73 Million Stock Position in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Champlain Investment Partners LLC decreased its holdings in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) by 4.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 5,746,943 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 250,789 shares during the period. Pure Storage makes up approximately 1.7% of Champlain Investment Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Champlain Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Pure Storage were worth $288,726,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Pure Storage in the first quarter valued at approximately $315,000. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its holdings in Pure Storage by 182.5% during the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 216,808 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $11,262,000 after buying an additional 140,071 shares during the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in Pure Storage during the 1st quarter valued at $1,065,000. BOKF NA grew its holdings in Pure Storage by 8.0% in the 1st quarter. BOKF NA now owns 162,501 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $8,460,000 after acquiring an additional 12,004 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caxton Associates LP purchased a new position in shares of Pure Storage in the first quarter valued at about $2,017,000. Institutional investors own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

Pure Storage Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE PSTG opened at $51.66 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $51.70 and its 200-day moving average price is $56.84. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market cap of $16.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 129.15, a P/E/G ratio of 7.00 and a beta of 1.10. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 12 month low of $31.00 and a 12 month high of $70.41.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The technology company reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $763.77 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $756.59 million. Pure Storage had a net margin of 4.53% and a return on equity of 17.41%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on PSTG. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $70.00 target price for the company. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $59.00 price objective (down from $68.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on Pure Storage from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Pure Storage from $65.00 to $60.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $72.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Pure Storage has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $67.95.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Mona Chu sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.32, for a total value 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. This trade represents a 20.55 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.94, for a total value of $4,994,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 500,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,970,000. The trade was a 16.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 354,542 shares of company stock worth $18,599,030 in the last three months. Insiders own 6.00% 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.