Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV Increases Stock Position in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its position in shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) by 21.0% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 12,484 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 2,165 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV’s holdings in Pure Storage were worth $802,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Pure Storage by 1.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,789,480 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,652,735,000 after purchasing an additional 495,183 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in Pure Storage by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 4,028,716 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $143,664,000 after acquiring an additional 160,877 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Pure Storage by 56.1% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,696,390 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $237,345,000 after acquiring an additional 1,327,873 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in Pure Storage by 12.6% during the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 2,234,382 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $143,470,000 after acquiring an additional 249,761 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group raised its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 28.8% in the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,355,955 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $48,353,000 after purchasing an additional 302,964 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on PSTG shares. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on Pure Storage from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $65.00 to $60.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $72.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $80.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.95.

Pure Storage Price Performance

Shares of PSTG opened at $50.45 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 180.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.87 and a beta of 1.11. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $54.86 and its 200-day moving average is $56.89. Pure Storage, Inc. has a one year low of $31.00 and a one year high of $70.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a current ratio of 1.99.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The technology company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $763.77 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $756.59 million. Pure Storage had a net margin of 4.53% and a return on equity of 17.41%. Equities analysts anticipate that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.43 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pure Storage

In other news, CFO P. Kevan Krysler sold 14,296 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.79, for a total value of $911,941.84. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 518,623 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,082,961.17. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 8,895 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.67, for a total transaction of $450,709.65. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now directly owns 94,446 shares in the company, valued at $4,785,578.82. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO P. Kevan Krysler sold 14,296 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.79, for a total value of $911,941.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 518,623 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,082,961.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 433,072 shares of company stock valued at $24,307,792. 6.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Pure Storage 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.