Pure Storage’s (PSTG) Outperform Rating Reiterated at William Blair

William Blair reissued their outperform rating on shares of Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) in a research note released on Thursday,RTT News reports.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup cut their price target on Pure Storage from $75.00 to $67.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Guggenheim increased their price target on Pure Storage from $72.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Raymond James cut their price objective on Pure Storage from $73.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Lake Street Capital decreased their target price on Pure Storage from $70.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pure Storage currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.15.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE PSTG traded down $2.07 during trading on Thursday, reaching $47.76. 913,257 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,670,611. Pure Storage has a 12-month low of $31.00 and a 12-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 stock has a market cap of $15.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 121.00, a PEG ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $51.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.90.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The technology company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.10. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 17.41% and a net margin of 4.53%. The company had revenue of $763.77 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $756.59 million. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Pure Storage will post 0.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Mona Chu sold 20,647 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.50, for a total value of $1,063,320.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 75,992 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,913,588. This represents a 21.37 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.94, for a total transaction of $4,994,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 500,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,970,000. The trade was a 16.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 454,542 shares of company stock valued at $24,775,030 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 6.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV grew its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 61.2% in the second quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 424 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Nvwm LLC grew its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 23.3% in the third quarter. Nvwm LLC now owns 1,027 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 194 shares in the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. increased its position in shares of Pure Storage by 3.0% during the second quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 6,912 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $444,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares during the period. Michael S. Ryan Inc. raised its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 4.8% in the second quarter. Michael S. Ryan Inc. now owns 4,542 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 208 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Pure Storage by 49.1% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 644 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 212 shares during the period. 83.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.