Insider Selling: Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Director Sells 11,234 Shares of Stock

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Director John Francis Murphy sold 11,234 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.13, for a total value of $619,330.42. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 21,930 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,209,000.90. This represents a 33.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Pure Storage Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:PSTG traded up $0.26 during trading on Monday, hitting $55.55. 1,819,559 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,981,998. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $48.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $56.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 146.17, a PEG ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 1.05. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 12-month low of $34.51 and a 12-month high of $73.67.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The technology company reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.04. Pure Storage had a net margin of 4.22% and a return on equity of 16.06%. The company had revenue of $778.49 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $770.03 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.32 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Pure Storage from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Pure Storage from $40.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Pure Storage from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $77.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.95.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PSTG. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Pure Storage by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,443,732 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,054,448,000 after buying an additional 615,931 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Pure Storage by 25.9% during the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,075,944 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $401,793,000 after acquiring an additional 1,868,782 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Pure Storage by 25.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,748,553 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $413,982,000 after purchasing an additional 1,366,458 shares during the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC increased its position in Pure Storage by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 5,921,392 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $363,751,000 after buying an additional 174,449 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Pure Storage by 18.8% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,162,081 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $255,677,000 after purchasing an additional 657,175 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

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.