Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. Sells 83,634 Shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lessened its position in shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) by 4.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,984,621 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 83,634 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. owned about 0.61% of Pure Storage worth $103,180,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sei Investments Co. grew its position in Pure Storage by 19.7% during the 3rd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 464,256 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $16,537,000 after purchasing an additional 76,421 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Pure Storage by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,168,335 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $41,666,000 after purchasing an additional 28,086 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Pure Storage during the 4th quarter worth approximately $514,000. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its position in Pure Storage by 44.1% during the 4th quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 11,235 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $401,000 after purchasing an additional 3,437 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates grew its position in Pure Storage by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 306,862 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,943,000 after purchasing an additional 30,642 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

NYSE:PSTG opened at $63.69 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a current ratio of 2.00. The company has a fifty day moving average of $60.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $50.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.71 billion, a PE ratio of 227.46, a P/E/G ratio of 6.32 and a beta of 1.11. Pure Storage, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $31.00 and a fifty-two week high of $70.41.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 29th. The technology company reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.02. The company had revenue of $693.48 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $681.37 million. Pure Storage had a net margin of 3.19% and a return on equity of 15.34%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Ajay Singh sold 37,588 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.54, for a total value of $2,012,461.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 380,834 shares in the company, valued at $20,389,852.36. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, Director Mallun Yen sold 4,818 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.78, for a total value of $312,110.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 35,498 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,299,560.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ajay Singh sold 37,588 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.54, for a total transaction of $2,012,461.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 380,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,389,852.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 254,539 shares of company stock worth $13,597,221 over the last three months. Insiders own 6.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on PSTG shares. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $46.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. StockNews.com raised shares of Pure Storage from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Pure Storage from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $64.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $63.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.11.

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.