Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Price Target Cut to $62.00 by Analysts at Needham & Company LLC

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) had its price objective decreased by Needham & Company LLC from $80.00 to $62.00 in a research note published on Thursday morning, Marketbeat reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on PSTG. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Pure Storage from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. Raymond James lifted their target price on Pure Storage from $63.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. KeyCorp upped their price target on Pure Storage from $64.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley lowered Pure Storage from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and set a $60.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Pure Storage from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $65.85.

Pure Storage Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:PSTG opened at $50.32 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 stock has a market cap of $16.37 billion, a PE ratio of 179.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.29 and a beta of 1.11. Pure Storage has a one year low of $31.00 and a one year high of $70.41. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $61.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $56.57.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The technology company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $763.77 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $756.59 million. Pure Storage had a net margin of 3.19% and a return on equity of 15.34%. On average, analysts forecast that Pure Storage will post 0.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Pure Storage

In other Pure Storage news, Director Mallun Yen sold 4,818 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.78, for a total transaction of $312,110.04. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 35,498 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,299,560.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CFO P. Kevan Krysler sold 14,296 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.79, for a total transaction of $911,941.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 518,623 shares in the company, valued at $33,082,961.17. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Mallun Yen sold 4,818 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.78, for a total transaction of $312,110.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 35,498 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,299,560.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 328,995 shares of company stock valued at $19,175,193 over the last three months. 6.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Pure Storage by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,168,335 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $41,666,000 after acquiring an additional 28,086 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its stake 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 valued at $401,000 after buying an additional 3,437 shares during the period. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. raised its position in shares of Pure Storage by 83.9% during the 4th quarter. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 2,068,255 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $73,733,000 after buying an additional 943,850 shares in the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Pure Storage in the 4th quarter valued at about $592,000. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue bought a new position in shares of Pure Storage during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,675,000. Institutional investors own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

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.