Bank of America Cuts Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Price Target to $73.00

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) had its price objective lowered by Bank of America from $77.00 to $73.00 in a research note released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Bank of America currently has a neutral rating on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on PSTG. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $70.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $63.00 target price (up previously from $59.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Lake Street Capital lifted their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. One equities 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $73.20.

Pure Storage Trading Down 1.5 %

NYSE PSTG opened at $52.42 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 137.95, a P/E/G ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 1.09. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $65.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.20. Pure Storage has a 1 year low of $44.76 and a 1 year high of $73.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.55, for a total value of $6,555,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 7,316,722 shares in the company, valued at $479,611,127.10. This represents a 1.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Mona Chu sold 8,311 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.16, for a total transaction of $516,611.76. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 67,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,207,050.96. This represents a 10.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 137,178 shares of company stock worth $8,871,746. Insiders own 6.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Pure Storage

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. McIlrath & Eck LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Pure Storage during the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Compass Financial Services Inc bought a new position in Pure Storage during the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in Pure Storage during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Pure Storage during the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.