Wall Street Zen Upgrades Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) to Buy

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Saturday.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Northland Securities boosted their price objective on Pure Storage from $63.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 28th. Raymond James Financial upped their target price on Pure Storage from $76.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Lake Street Capital lifted their target price on Pure Storage from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on Pure Storage from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 28th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.11.

Pure Storage Trading Down 3.8%

Shares of PSTG stock opened at $77.48 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $58.48 and a 200-day moving average of $53.41. The stock has a market cap of $25.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 188.99, a PEG ratio of 8.49 and a beta of 1.20. Pure Storage has a 1-year low of $34.51 and a 1-year high of $80.68.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 27th. The technology company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.04. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 11.34% and a net margin of 4.15%.The business had revenue of $861.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $845.78 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.44 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. Pure Storage has set its FY 2026 guidance at EPS. Q3 2026 guidance at EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Pure Storage will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Pure Storage

In other Pure Storage news, Director John Francis Murphy sold 6,959 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.17, for a total transaction of $390,887.03. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 19,706 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,106,886.02. The trade was a 26.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 95,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.08, for a total transaction of $5,725,624.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 400,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,032,000. The trade was a 19.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 542,094 shares of company stock worth $32,367,537. 5.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pure Storage

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 0.9% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,268,006 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,915,572,000 after purchasing an additional 308,738 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Pure Storage by 25.9% in the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,075,944 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $401,793,000 after buying an additional 1,868,782 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,273,696 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $417,830,000 after acquiring an additional 123,320 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Pure Storage by 112.9% during the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,926,836 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $283,687,000 after acquiring an additional 2,612,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the 2nd quarter worth $225,203,000. 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.