Covestor Ltd Grows Stake in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Covestor Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) by 175.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 991 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 631 shares during the quarter. Covestor Ltd’s holdings in Pure Storage were worth $50,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV boosted its holdings in Pure Storage by 61.2% in the second quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 424 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 242.9% during the 2nd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 432 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 306 shares in the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Pure Storage in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pure Storage during the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, City State Bank boosted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 175.0% during the second quarter. City State Bank now owns 550 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

NYSE:PSTG opened at $49.81 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $51.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $56.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 12-month low of $31.00 and a 12-month high of $70.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 124.58, a P/E/G ratio of 7.86 and a beta of 1.10.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 8,895 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.67, for a total transaction of $450,709.65. Following the sale, the executive now directly owns 94,446 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,785,578.82. This represents a 8.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.94, for a total value of $4,994,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 500,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,970,000. This represents a 16.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 454,542 shares of company stock worth $24,775,030 in the last 90 days. 6.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Monday, August 26th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $47.00 to $45.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Pure Storage from $65.00 to $60.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Pure Storage from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.15.

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.