Short Interest in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Declines By 22.4%

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) saw a large decline in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 9,160,000 shares, a decline of 22.4% from the February 13th total of 11,810,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 3,120,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.9 days. Approximately 3.0% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Pure Storage Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE:PSTG traded up $0.08 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $51.00. The stock had a trading volume of 931,640 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,027,137. Pure Storage has a 1-year low of $44.76 and a 1-year high of $73.67. The company has a market cap of $16.64 billion, a PE ratio of 134.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 1.09. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $57.34.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Ajay Singh sold 19,972 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.58, for a total transaction of $1,229,875.76. Following the sale, the insider now owns 262,144 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,142,827.52. This trade represents a 7.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 8,895 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.11, for a total transaction of $570,258.45. Following the sale, the executive now owns 72,927 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,675,349.97. This represents a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 6.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Pure Storage

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PSTG. World Investment Advisors lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 9,635 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $592,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 5,775 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $355,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 5,885 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $396,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 13,271 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $815,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 67,232 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,130,000 after buying an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PSTG has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised shares of Pure Storage from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $56.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of Pure Storage from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $63.00 price objective (up previously from $59.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $73.20.

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.