Insider Selling: Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Insider Sells $5,950,000.00 in Stock

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.50, for a total value of $5,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 900,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,550,000. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Pure Storage Stock Down 4.8 %

PSTG stock opened at $58.30 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. Pure Storage, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $31.00 and a fifty-two week high of $70.41. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $63.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.33. The company has a market cap of $18.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 208.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.16 and a beta of 1.11.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last issued its earnings results 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. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 15.34% and a net margin of 3.19%. The company had revenue of $693.48 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $681.37 million. On average, research analysts expect that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PSTG has been the subject of several analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Bank of America increased their price target on Pure Storage from $57.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Barclays upped their target price on Pure Storage from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective 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. 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. According to MarketBeat, Pure Storage presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.11.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. New York State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 15.7% in the 2nd quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 282,016 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $18,108,000 after acquiring an additional 38,225 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 1.1% in the second quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 86,400 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,548,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Pure Storage in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,040,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Pure Storage during the second quarter valued at approximately $134,000. Finally, Lecap Asset Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Pure Storage during the second quarter worth $481,000. 83.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.