Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-two ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation and fifteen have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $73.20.

PSTG has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays lifted their price target on Pure Storage from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Pure Storage from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Pure Storage from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Pure Storage from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price target on Pure Storage from $77.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th.

Pure Storage Trading Down 0.7 %

PSTG opened at $50.54 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $16.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 133.01, a P/E/G ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 1.09. Pure Storage has a 12 month low of $44.76 and a 12 month high of $73.67. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $62.58 and a 200 day moving average of $57.34.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 8,895 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.11, for a total value of $570,258.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 72,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,675,349.97. The trade was a 10.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ajay Singh sold 19,972 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.58, for a total transaction of $1,229,875.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 262,144 shares in the company, valued at $16,142,827.52. This represents a 7.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 6.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pure Storage

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Pure Storage by 0.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,153,797 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,469,487,000 after purchasing an additional 368,643 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Pure Storage by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,443,732 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,054,448,000 after purchasing an additional 615,931 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 6.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,262,666 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $515,596,000 after buying an additional 626,427 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,207,162 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $442,736,000 after buying an additional 401,035 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 25.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,748,553 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $413,982,000 after buying an additional 1,366,458 shares during the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Pure Storage Company Profile

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.