Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Upgraded to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report released on Friday morning.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on PSTG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $77.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $66.00 target price (up from $53.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $70.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $69.95.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:PSTG opened at $53.51 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 140.82, a PEG ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 1.05. Pure Storage has a 1-year low of $34.51 and a 1-year high of $73.67. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $47.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $55.92.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The technology company reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $778.49 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $770.03 million. Pure Storage had a net margin of 4.22% and a return on equity of 16.06%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Pure Storage will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Pure Storage news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 872 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.51, for a total value of $44,916.72. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now owns 89,351 shares in the company, valued at $4,602,470.01. This represents a 0.97% decrease in their position. 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 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.01, for a total transaction of $5,201,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 801,959 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $41,709,887.59. The trade was a 11.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 107,849 shares of company stock worth $5,531,346 in the last quarter. 5.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,443,732 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,054,448,000 after purchasing an additional 615,931 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Pure Storage by 25.9% in the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,075,944 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $401,793,000 after buying an additional 1,868,782 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Pure Storage by 25.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,748,553 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $413,982,000 after buying an additional 1,366,458 shares during the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in Pure Storage by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 5,921,392 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $363,751,000 after buying an additional 174,449 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Pure Storage by 18.8% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,162,081 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $255,677,000 after buying an additional 657,175 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.