Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Given New $63.00 Price Target at Citigroup

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) had its price objective reduced by Citigroup from $67.00 to $63.00 in a research note published on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the technology company’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Monday, August 26th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Oppenheimer began coverage on Pure Storage in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $70.00 price objective for the company. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and issued a $80.00 target price on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reduced their price target on Pure Storage from $80.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” 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 issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pure Storage currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $67.95.

Pure Storage Price Performance

NYSE PSTG opened at $51.66 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $51.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $56.84. Pure Storage has a 1 year low of $31.00 and a 1 year high of $70.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.99 and a quick ratio of 1.96. The company has a market cap of $16.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 129.15, a PEG ratio of 6.77 and a beta of 1.10.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The technology company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.10. The firm 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%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Pure Storage will post 0.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Pure Storage

In other news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 8,895 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.67, for a total transaction of $450,709.65. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now owns 94,446 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,785,578.82. This represents a 8.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 500,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,970,000. This 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 have sold 354,542 shares of company stock valued at $18,599,030. 6.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Pure Storage

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Pure Storage by 56.1% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,696,390 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $237,345,000 after purchasing an additional 1,327,873 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its stake in Pure Storage by 22.5% during the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 4,063,776 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $204,163,000 after buying an additional 747,034 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Pure Storage by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,262,666 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $515,596,000 after buying an additional 626,427 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the 3rd quarter worth $20,470,000. Finally, FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,153,797 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,469,487,000 after acquiring an additional 368,643 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

About Pure Storage

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.