Blueshift Asset Management LLC Makes New Investment in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 6,057 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $304,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PSTG. Glenmede Trust Co. NA grew its holdings in Pure Storage by 38.6% in the 3rd quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 683,464 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $34,337,000 after buying an additional 190,225 shares in the last quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 43.0% in the third quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,909 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $699,000 after purchasing an additional 4,181 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC increased its position in Pure Storage by 10.2% during the third quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 73,444 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,690,000 after purchasing an additional 6,806 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in Pure Storage by 14.9% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 180,957 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $9,091,000 after purchasing an additional 23,398 shares during the period. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in Pure Storage during the third quarter worth about $3,381,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on PSTG. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $47.00 to $45.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Guggenheim lifted their target price on Pure Storage from $72.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Pure Storage from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $67.00 to $63.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pure Storage has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $67.95.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

Shares of PSTG opened at $52.89 on Friday. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 1 year low of $31.00 and a 1 year high of $70.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.33 billion, a PE ratio of 132.23, a PEG ratio of 7.18 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a current ratio of 1.99. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $52.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $56.83.

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

Insider Transactions at Pure Storage

In other news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 8,895 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.67, for a total transaction of $450,709.65. Following the sale, the executive now owns 94,446 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,785,578.82. This trade represents a 8.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.94, for a total value of $4,994,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 500,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,970,000. This trade represents a 16.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 354,542 shares of company stock valued at $18,599,030. Insiders own 6.00% of the company’s stock.

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.