Bessemer Group Inc. Decreases Stake in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Bessemer Group Inc. reduced its stake in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) by 21.3% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 54,860 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 14,888 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc.’s holdings in Pure Storage were worth $2,852,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Naples Money Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Pure Storage during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise purchased a new position in shares of Pure Storage during the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Pure Storage during the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Pure Storage during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Lindbrook Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 295.6% during the first quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 633 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 473 shares during the period. 83.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Pure Storage

In other news, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.50, for a total value of $5,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 900,000 shares in the company, valued at $53,550,000. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Pure Storage news, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.50, for a total value of $5,950,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 900,000 shares in the company, valued at $53,550,000. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Mallun Yen sold 4,818 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.78, for a total value of $312,110.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 35,498 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,299,560.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 119,114 shares of company stock worth $7,174,052 over the last quarter. 6.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays boosted their target price on Pure Storage from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Pure Storage from $64.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on Pure Storage from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Bank of America lifted their price target on Pure Storage from $57.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Lake Street Capital lifted their price target on Pure Storage from $48.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pure Storage has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.11.

Pure Storage Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of PSTG stock traded down $0.55 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $57.77. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 843,766 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,086,725. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 52-week low of $31.00 and a 52-week high of $70.41. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $63.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $53.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a current ratio of 2.00. The stock has a market cap of $18.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 208.21, a PEG ratio of 6.17 and a beta of 1.11.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 29th. The technology company reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by $0.02. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 15.34% and a net margin of 3.19%. The firm had revenue of $693.48 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $681.37 million. Research analysts predict that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.