Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Lowered to Outperform at Raymond James

Raymond James cut shares of Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) from a strong-buy rating to an outperform rating in a report published on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $63.00 price target on the technology company’s stock, up from their previous price target of $52.00.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on PSTG. KeyCorp upped their price target on Pure Storage from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Wedbush reiterated an outperform rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Pure Storage from $42.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Pure Storage from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Pure Storage from $42.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $51.63.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

NYSE PSTG opened at $49.46 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 290.96, a PEG ratio of 6.73 and a beta of 1.15. Pure Storage has a twelve month low of $22.14 and a twelve month high of $58.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $50.02 and a 200 day moving average of $41.17.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The technology company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $789.81 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $784.31 million. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 2.17%. Pure Storage’s quarterly revenue was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.27 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Pure Storage will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 507,824 shares in the company, valued at $26,813,107.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 507,824 shares in the company, valued at $26,813,107.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 29,283 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $7,200,794.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 286,581 shares of company stock worth $15,266,704. Company insiders own 6.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PSTG. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Pure Storage during the fourth quarter worth $90,143,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 24.9% during the first 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. lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 5,725.3% during the third 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 acquired a new position in Pure Storage during the fourth quarter worth $36,678,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 61.5% during the third 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 currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.