Raymond James Lowers Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) to Outperform

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) was downgraded by equities researchers at Raymond James from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report released on Friday, FinViz reports. They currently have a $63.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $52.00. Raymond James’ target price points to a potential upside of 21.55% from the company’s current price.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on PSTG. UBS Group lifted their price target on Pure Storage from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Pure Storage from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Susquehanna lifted their price target on Pure Storage from $45.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Citigroup started coverage on Pure Storage in a research note on Friday, March 15th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $65.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Pure Storage from $42.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pure Storage has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $51.63.

Pure Storage Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:PSTG opened at $51.83 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $49.93 and its 200 day moving average is $41.07. Pure Storage has a 1 year low of $22.14 and a 1 year high of $58.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 304.90, a P/E/G ratio of 6.79 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.83 and a quick ratio of 1.80.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The technology company reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $789.81 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $784.31 million. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 2.17%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.27 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Pure Storage will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 29,283 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.14, for a total value of $1,526,815.62. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now directly owns 138,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,200,794.70. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 29,283 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.14, for a total value of $1,526,815.62. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now directly owns 138,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,200,794.70. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Andrew William Fraser Brown sold 20,564 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.31, for a total transaction of $1,075,702.84. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 24,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,276,364. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 271,295 shares of company stock worth $14,459,604. Corporate insiders own 6.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Pure Storage by 1.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 46,793,394 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,666,781,000 after purchasing an additional 663,465 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Pure Storage by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,294,297 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,115,955,000 after buying an additional 567,358 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Pure Storage by 24.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,091,077 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $359,464,000 after buying an additional 2,807,489 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its position in Pure Storage by 3.4% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,296,843 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $153,054,000 after buying an additional 140,541 shares during the period. Finally, Polar Capital Holdings Plc grew its position in Pure Storage by 33.8% during the third quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc now owns 4,068,672 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $144,926,000 after buying an additional 1,028,104 shares during the period. 83.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Pure Storage Company Profile

Pure Storage, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides data storage technologies, products, and services in the United States and internationally. The company's Purity software is shared across its products and provides enterprise-class data services, such as data reduction, data protection, and encryption, as well as storage protocols, including block, file, and object.