Dan Fitzsimons Sells 29,283 Shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Stock

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 29,283 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.14, for a total value of $1,526,815.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 138,105 shares in the company, valued at $7,200,794.70. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Pure Storage Trading Down 4.6 %

Pure Storage stock opened at $49.46 on Friday. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average of $50.02 and a 200-day moving average of $41.17. The company has a market cap of $16.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 290.94, a P/E/G ratio of 6.79 and a beta of 1.15. Pure Storage, Inc. has a one year low of $22.14 and a one year high of $58.46.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The technology company reported $0.27 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $789.81 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $784.31 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PSTG has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Pure Storage from $41.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Friday, March 15th. They set a “buy” rating and a $65.00 price objective for the company. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $42.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Raymond James downgraded Pure Storage from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $52.00 to $63.00 in a research note on Friday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $51.63.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pure Storage

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise acquired a new stake in Pure Storage in the first quarter valued at $25,000. Naples Money Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Pure Storage during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. LM Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Pure Storage in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. bought a new position in Pure Storage during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. 83.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.