Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Price Target Cut to $70.00 by Analysts at Raymond James

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) had its price target trimmed by Raymond James from $73.00 to $70.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $46.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $80.00 to $62.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Pure Storage from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and set a $60.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Northland Securities cut shares of Pure Storage from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and upped their price objective for the company from $58.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $66.95.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

Shares of Pure Storage stock opened at $51.29 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $60.47 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 183.18, a PEG ratio of 5.40 and a beta of 1.11. Pure Storage has a 52 week low of $31.00 and a 52 week high of $70.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a current ratio of 1.99.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 29th. The technology company reported ($0.02) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by $0.02. The company had revenue of $693.48 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $681.37 million. Pure Storage had a net margin of 4.53% and a return on equity of 17.41%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Pure Storage will post 0.45 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Pure Storage

In other news, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.50, for a total transaction of $5,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 900,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,550,000. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.50, for a total transaction of $5,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 900,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,550,000. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 9,881 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.32, for a total transaction of $586,140.92. Following the transaction, the executive now owns 115,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,857,451.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 328,995 shares of company stock worth $19,175,193 in the last three months. Insiders own 6.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pure Storage

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,168,335 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $41,666,000 after purchasing an additional 28,086 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 44.1% in the 4th quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 11,235 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $401,000 after purchasing an additional 3,437 shares during the last quarter. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 83.9% in the 4th quarter. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 2,068,255 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $73,733,000 after purchasing an additional 943,850 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Pure Storage in the 4th quarter valued at about $592,000. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue acquired a new stake in Pure Storage in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,675,000. 83.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.