JPMorgan Chase & Co. Cuts Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Price Target to $70.00

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) had its price objective reduced by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $75.00 to $70.00 in a report issued on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the technology company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded Pure Storage from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 23rd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.95.

Pure Storage Stock Down 0.2%

NYSE PSTG opened at $53.51 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $47.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.96. Pure Storage has a 52 week low of $34.51 and a 52 week high of $73.67. The firm has a market cap of $17.45 billion, a PE ratio of 140.82, a P/E/G ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 1.05.

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

Insider Transactions at Pure Storage

In other Pure Storage news, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.01, for a total transaction of $5,201,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 801,959 shares in the company, valued at $41,709,887.59. This represents a 11.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 6,977 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.91, for a total transaction of $285,429.07. Following the sale, the executive now owns 90,223 shares in the company, valued at $3,691,022.93. The trade was a 7.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 107,849 shares of company stock valued at $5,531,346. 5.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pure Storage

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Sycomore Asset Management increased its holdings in Pure Storage by 57.8% in the fourth quarter. Sycomore Asset Management now owns 187,874 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $11,541,000 after buying an additional 68,840 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Pure Storage by 23.5% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 284,649 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $17,486,000 after buying an additional 54,256 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,566,374 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $157,652,000 after acquiring an additional 12,972 shares during the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 20.8% in the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 5,414 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $333,000 after acquiring an additional 932 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 14,032 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $862,000 after acquiring an additional 890 shares during the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Pure Storage Company Profile

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.