Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Director Sells $7,863,030.00 in Stock

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Director Scott Dietzen sold 147,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.49, for a total transaction of $7,863,030.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 100,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,349,000. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Pure Storage Stock Down 4.6 %

Pure Storage stock opened at $49.46 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $50.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.17. Pure Storage, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $22.14 and a fifty-two week high of $58.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 290.94, a PEG ratio of 6.79 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.83 and a quick ratio of 1.80.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The technology company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.10. Pure Storage had a net margin of 2.17% and a return on equity of 12.60%. The business had revenue of $789.81 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $784.31 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.27 EPS. Pure Storage’s quarterly revenue was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PSTG. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 121.7% in the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 21,660 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $765,000 after buying an additional 11,891 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in Pure Storage in the first quarter valued at approximately $233,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Pure Storage in the first quarter valued at approximately $596,000. Synovus Financial Corp lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 1.7% in the first quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 43,894 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,547,000 after buying an additional 744 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 0.7% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,035,914 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $36,582,000 after buying an additional 6,756 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PSTG has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $45.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $42.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Friday, March 15th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $65.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $42.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $51.63.

Pure Storage Company Profile

Pure Storage, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides data storage technologies, products, and services in the United States and internationally. The company's Purity software is shared across its products and provides enterprise-class data services, such as data reduction, data protection, and encryption, as well as storage protocols, including block, file, and object.