Empowered Funds LLC Makes New Investment in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 4,596 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $282,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Creative Planning lifted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 39.7% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 27,399 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,377,000 after purchasing an additional 7,780 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 462.2% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,166 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $209,000 after purchasing an additional 3,425 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 2,507.0% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 108,267 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,439,000 after purchasing an additional 104,114 shares during the period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 35.2% in the 3rd quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 20,169 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,013,000 after purchasing an additional 5,252 shares during the period. Finally, Impact Partnership Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $365,000. 83.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on PSTG. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $70.00 target price for the company. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $63.00 target price (up previously from $59.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Pure Storage presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $72.95.

Pure Storage Trading Down 3.9 %

NYSE PSTG opened at $65.14 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $21.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 171.43, a P/E/G ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 1.09. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 12-month low of $40.32 and a 12-month high of $73.67. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $66.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.00.

Insider Transactions at Pure Storage

In other news, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.55, for a total value of $6,555,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 7,316,722 shares in the company, valued at $479,611,127.10. This represents a 1.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Ajay Singh sold 19,972 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.58, for a total transaction of $1,229,875.76. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 262,144 shares in the company, valued at $16,142,827.52. The trade was a 7.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 137,178 shares of company stock worth $8,871,746 over the last 90 days. 6.00% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.