Raymond James Lowers Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) to Outperform

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) was downgraded by Raymond James from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report released on Friday, FinViz reports. They currently have a $63.00 target price on the technology company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $52.00. Raymond James’ price objective suggests a potential upside of 21.55% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $66.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $41.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Friday, March 15th. They set a “buy” rating and a $65.00 target price for the company. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $42.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $51.63.

Pure Storage Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE PSTG opened at $51.83 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $16.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 304.90, a P/E/G ratio of 6.79 and a beta of 1.15. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $49.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.80 and a current ratio of 1.83. Pure Storage has a 52-week low of $22.14 and a 52-week high of $58.46.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last announced 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 net margin of 2.17% and a return on equity of 12.60%. The firm had revenue of $789.81 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $784.31 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Pure Storage will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 29,283 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.14, for a total transaction of $1,526,815.62. Following the sale, the executive now directly owns 138,105 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,200,794.70. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director Andrew William Fraser Brown sold 20,564 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.31, for a total value of $1,075,702.84. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 24,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,276,364. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 29,283 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.14, for a total transaction of $1,526,815.62. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now owns 138,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,200,794.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 271,295 shares of company stock worth $14,459,604 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 6.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Pure Storage

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Naples Money Management LLC bought a new stake in Pure Storage during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise bought a new stake in Pure Storage during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC bought a new stake in Pure Storage during the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. LM Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Pure Storage during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. bought a new stake in Pure Storage during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Institutional investors own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

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.