Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Downgraded by Barclays to “Equal Weight”

Barclays cut shares of Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research note released on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $51.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock.

PSTG has been the subject of several other research reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Pure Storage from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Pure Storage from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Raymond James downgraded Pure Storage from a strong-buy rating to an outperform rating and increased their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $63.00 in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on Pure Storage from $45.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a positive rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $50.00 target price on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pure Storage presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $52.26.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

NYSE PSTG opened at $61.05 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $53.66 and a 200-day moving average price of $44.73. The firm has a market cap of $19.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 359.14, a PEG ratio of 6.69 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 has a 1 year low of $25.29 and a 1 year high of $62.22.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The technology company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $789.81 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $784.31 million. Pure Storage had a net margin of 2.17% and a return on equity of 12.60%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.27 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Pure Storage will post 0.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Pure Storage news, CFO P. Kevan Krysler sold 15,286 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.80, for a total value of $807,100.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 507,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,813,107.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Pure Storage news, Director Scott Dietzen sold 147,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.49, for a total transaction of $7,863,030.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 100,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,349,000. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO P. Kevan Krysler sold 15,286 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.80, for a total value of $807,100.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 507,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,813,107.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 286,581 shares of company stock valued at $15,266,704. Insiders own 6.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pure Storage

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of PSTG. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 27.3% in the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 14,218 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,048 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its stake in Pure Storage by 3.4% during the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 515,165 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $18,350,000 after purchasing an additional 16,710 shares in the last quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd bought a new position in shares of Pure Storage in the 3rd quarter valued at about $397,000. NBC Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Pure Storage during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $182,000. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 25.5% in the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 71,301 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,540,000 after acquiring an additional 14,507 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.42% 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.