Oppenheimer Initiates Coverage on Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG)

Research analysts at Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm set an “outperform” rating and a $70.00 price target on the technology company’s stock. Oppenheimer’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 39.58% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on PSTG. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $65.00 to $60.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $60.00 to $56.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Raymond James decreased their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $73.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Pure Storage presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.15.

Pure Storage Stock Down 4.7 %

Pure Storage stock opened at $50.15 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $51.21 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $57.02. Pure Storage has a twelve month low of $31.00 and a twelve month high of $70.41. The firm has a market cap of $16.43 billion, a PE ratio of 125.38, a P/E/G ratio of 8.25 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.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The technology company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $756.59 million. On average, research analysts predict that Pure Storage will post 0.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pure Storage

In other Pure Storage news, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.76, for a total value of $6,176,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 700,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,232,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.76, for a total value of $6,176,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 700,000 shares in the company, valued at $43,232,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Mona Chu sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.32, for a total transaction of $1,258,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 96,639 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,862,874.48. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 454,542 shares of company stock valued at $24,775,030. Corporate insiders own 6.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PSTG. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Pure Storage by 19.5% during the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 12,957 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $674,000 after purchasing an additional 2,112 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Pure Storage during the first quarter worth $860,000. Bleakley Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Pure Storage during the first quarter worth $260,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System boosted its holdings in Pure Storage by 3.3% during the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 255,485 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $13,283,000 after purchasing an additional 8,143 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Pure Storage by 1.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,789,480 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,652,735,000 after acquiring an additional 495,183 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% 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.