Oppenheimer Initiates Coverage on Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG)

Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) in a research note released on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm issued an outperform rating and a $70.00 price target on the technology company’s stock.

PSTG has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Lake Street Capital cut their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $70.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Pure Storage from $47.00 to $45.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on Pure Storage from $80.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $59.00 target price (down previously from $68.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $60.00 to $56.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.15.

Pure Storage Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:PSTG opened at $48.19 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $15.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 120.48, a P/E/G ratio of 6.54 and a beta of 1.10. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $56.87. Pure Storage has a 52 week low of $31.00 and a 52 week high of $70.41. The company has a quick ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $763.77 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $756.59 million. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 17.41% and a net margin of 4.53%. Equities research analysts forecast that Pure Storage will post 0.42 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Mona Chu sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.32, for a total value of $1,258,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 96,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,862,874.48. The trade was a 20.55 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 8,895 shares of Pure Storage 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 completion of the transaction, the executive now directly owns 94,446 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,785,578.82. This represents a 8.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 454,542 shares of company stock worth $24,775,030. Insiders own 6.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of PSTG. Sycomore Asset Management bought a new position in Pure Storage in the second quarter worth about $2,259,000. MinichMacGregor Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Pure Storage during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $6,890,000. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Pure Storage in the second quarter worth $721,000. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in Pure Storage by 284.9% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 55,801 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,901,000 after buying an additional 41,305 shares during the period. Finally, CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 182.5% in the first quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 216,808 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $11,262,000 after buying an additional 140,071 shares during the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is currently owned by 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.