Vanguard Group Inc. Increases Stake in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) by 1.6% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 31,789,480 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 495,183 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.10% of Pure Storage worth $1,652,735,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of PSTG. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in Pure Storage by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 306,862 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,943,000 after buying an additional 30,642 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 112,622 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,016,000 after acquiring an additional 8,390 shares during the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC increased its position in Pure Storage by 174.3% during the 4th quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 486,730 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $17,357,000 after purchasing an additional 309,283 shares during the period. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Pure Storage during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $67,000. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp increased its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 2,227 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $79,000 after acquiring an additional 727 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO P. Kevan Krysler sold 14,296 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.79, for a total value of $911,941.84. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 518,623 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,082,961.17. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CFO P. Kevan Krysler sold 14,296 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.79, for a total transaction of $911,941.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 518,623 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,082,961.17. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Mallun Yen sold 4,818 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.78, for a total value of $312,110.04. Following the transaction, the director now owns 35,498 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,299,560.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 6.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Raymond James boosted their target price on Pure Storage from $63.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Pure Storage from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $46.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $60.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.11.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE PSTG traded up $1.54 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $60.64. 1,009,074 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,119,000. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $63.19 and a 200 day moving average of $52.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 211.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 1.11. Pure Storage, Inc. 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 quick ratio of 1.96 and a current ratio of 2.00.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 29th. The technology company reported ($0.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.02. The business had revenue of $693.48 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $681.37 million. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 15.34% and a net margin of 3.19%. On average, analysts forecast that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.47 earnings per share for the current year.

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.