Raymond James Lowers Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) to Outperform

Raymond James lowered shares of Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) from a strong-buy rating to an outperform rating in a research report sent to investors on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have $63.00 target price on the technology company’s stock, up from their previous target price of $52.00.

PSTG has been the subject of several other research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $41.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $42.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $45.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a positive rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $51.63.

Pure Storage Stock Up 2.1 %

PSTG stock opened at $50.52 on Friday. 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 $22.14 and a 1-year high of $58.46. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $50.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.38. The firm has a market cap of $16.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 297.19, a PEG ratio of 6.42 and a beta of 1.15.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The technology company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.10. Pure Storage had a net margin of 2.17% and a return on equity of 12.60%. The firm had revenue of $789.81 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $784.31 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.27 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Pure Storage will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pure Storage

In other Pure Storage news, insider Ajay Singh sold 37,588 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.54, for a total value of $2,012,461.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 380,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,389,852.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Pure Storage news, insider Ajay Singh sold 37,588 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.54, for a total transaction of $2,012,461.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 380,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,389,852.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Scott Dietzen sold 147,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.49, for a total transaction of $7,863,030.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 100,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,349,000. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 286,581 shares of company stock valued at $15,266,704. 6.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Pure Storage

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Naples Money Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Pure Storage in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise acquired a new position in shares of Pure Storage in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Pure Storage in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Pure Storage in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new position in shares of Pure Storage in the 4th quarter valued at about $45,000. 83.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Pure Storage

Pure Storage, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides data storage technologies, products, and services in the United States and internationally. The company's Purity software is shared across its products and provides enterprise-class data services, such as data reduction, data protection, and encryption, as well as storage protocols, including block, file, and object.