Pacer Advisors Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Pure Storage, Inc. $PSTG

Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) by 909.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 60,097 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 54,142 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Pure Storage were worth $5,037,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in Pure Storage during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $225,203,000. Atreides Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Pure Storage during the second quarter valued at approximately $204,552,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 112.9% during the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,926,836 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $283,687,000 after buying an additional 2,612,300 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 1,560.9% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,343,658 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $77,368,000 after acquiring an additional 1,262,758 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 158.4% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,938,125 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $110,473,000 after acquiring an additional 1,188,126 shares in the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Pure Storage Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PSTG opened at $68.37 on Tuesday. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 1 year low of $34.51 and a 1 year high of $100.59. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $81.94 and a 200 day moving average of $73.25. The stock has a market cap of $22.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 179.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.69 and a beta of 1.28.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, September 9th. The technology company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter. Pure Storage had a net margin of 3.74% and a return on equity of 10.60%. The business had revenue of $763.77 million during the quarter. Research analysts expect that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Monday, November 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $120.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Pure Storage from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $95.26.

Insider Activity at Pure Storage

In other news, CAO Mona Chu sold 9,091 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.91, for a total transaction of $771,916.81. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 107,353 shares in the company, valued at $9,115,343.23. This trade represents a 7.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.31, for a total value of $7,131,000.00. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 316,269 shares of company stock valued at $26,792,848 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 5.60% of the company’s stock.

Pure Storage Profile

Pure Storage, Inc (NYSE: PSTG) is a technology company that designs and sells data storage hardware and software for enterprise and cloud environments. The company is best known for its all-flash storage arrays that are engineered to deliver high performance, low latency and simplified management compared with traditional disk-based systems. Its product portfolio includes purpose-built arrays and software aimed at transactional databases, virtualized infrastructures, analytics and large-scale file/object workloads.

Key product and software offerings include the FlashArray family for block storage and FlashBlade for file and object workloads, together with Purity, the company’s storage operating environment.