Insider Selling: Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) CFO Sells 15,286 Shares of Stock

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) CFO P. Kevan Krysler sold 15,286 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.80, for a total value of $807,100.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 507,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,813,107.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Pure Storage Trading Down 4.6 %

NYSE:PSTG traded down $2.36 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $49.46. 4,791,890 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,665,894. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 12-month low of $22.14 and a 12-month high of $58.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 287.72, 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. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $49.93 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.07.

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

Institutional Trading of Pure Storage

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of PSTG. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Pure Storage during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $90,143,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 24.9% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,091,077 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $359,464,000 after purchasing an additional 2,807,489 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 5,725.3% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,614,837 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $57,520,000 after purchasing an additional 1,587,116 shares in the last quarter. Spyglass Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the 4th quarter worth approximately $36,678,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 61.5% in the 3rd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 3,399,759 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $121,081,000 after purchasing an additional 1,294,285 shares in the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on PSTG. Citigroup began coverage on Pure Storage in a research report on Friday, March 15th. They set a “buy” rating and a $65.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Pure Storage from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Pure Storage from $41.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Susquehanna increased their price target on Pure Storage from $45.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Pure Storage from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $51.63.

About Pure Storage

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.