Eagle Asset Management Inc. Reduces Position in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Eagle Asset Management Inc. cut its position in shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) by 38.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 756,363 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 474,269 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Pure Storage were worth $40,019,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PSTG. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lifted its holdings in Pure Storage by 22.5% during the 3rd 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 buying an additional 747,034 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Pure Storage by 56.1% during the 2nd 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 buying an additional 1,327,873 shares in the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its holdings in Pure Storage by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 2,357,962 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $151,405,000 after buying an additional 15,747 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings in Pure Storage by 12.6% during the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 2,234,382 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $143,470,000 after buying an additional 249,761 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Pure Storage by 22.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,303,863 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $83,728,000 after buying an additional 235,356 shares in the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PSTG has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. 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 report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $80.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Monday, August 26th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $60.00 to $56.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $72.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $70.00 price target for the company. One equities research 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, Pure Storage has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $67.95.

Pure Storage Stock Up 0.2 %

NYSE:PSTG opened at $51.66 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $16.93 billion, a PE ratio of 129.15, a P/E/G ratio of 7.00 and a beta of 1.10. Pure Storage, Inc. has a twelve month low of $31.00 and a twelve month high of $70.41. 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 company’s 50 day moving average is $51.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $56.84.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The technology company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $763.77 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $756.59 million. Pure Storage had a net margin of 4.53% and a return on equity of 17.41%. Analysts anticipate that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.42 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.94, for a total value of $4,994,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 500,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,970,000. This represents a 16.67 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 8,895 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.67, for a total transaction of $450,709.65. Following the sale, the executive now directly owns 94,446 shares in the company, valued at $4,785,578.82. This trade represents a 8.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 354,542 shares of company stock valued at $18,599,030 in the last ninety days. 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.