Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Shares Gap Up After Analyst Upgrade

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday after UBS Group raised their price target on the stock from $45.00 to $47.00. The stock had previously closed at $53.54, but opened at $62.66. UBS Group currently has a sell rating on the stock. Pure Storage shares last traded at $65.71, with a volume of 3,884,364 shares trading hands.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on PSTG. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Pure Storage from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Pure Storage from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and issued a $80.00 target price on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Monday, August 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pure Storage has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $72.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Mona Chu sold 20,647 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.50, for a total transaction of $1,063,320.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 75,992 shares in the company, valued at $3,913,588. The trade was a 21.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.94, for a total transaction of $4,994,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 500,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,970,000. This represents a 16.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 354,542 shares of company stock valued at $18,599,030 over the last 90 days. 6.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Pure Storage

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in Pure Storage by 210.2% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,553,402 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $137,628,000 after purchasing an additional 1,730,123 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Pure Storage by 56.1% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,696,390 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $237,345,000 after buying an additional 1,327,873 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its position in shares of Pure Storage by 22.5% during the 3rd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 4,063,776 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $204,163,000 after buying an additional 747,034 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 6.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,262,666 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $515,596,000 after buying an additional 626,427 shares during the last quarter. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Pure Storage in the third quarter valued at approximately $20,470,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

Pure Storage Stock Up 24.3 %

The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $52.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.72. The stock has a market cap of $21.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 163.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.20 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

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.