Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Acquires 17,303 Shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its holdings in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) by 36.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 64,583 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 17,303 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Pure Storage were worth $3,968,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Pure Storage in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Compass Financial Services Inc bought a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Berbice Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Pure Storage in the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,000. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Pure Storage by 49.1% during the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 644 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 212 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Financial Life Planners purchased a new stake in Pure Storage during the 4th quarter valued at $44,000. 83.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

NYSE:PSTG opened at $48.21 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $63.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.51. Pure Storage, Inc. has a one year low of $44.76 and a one year high of $73.67. The firm has a market cap of $15.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 126.86, a P/E/G ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 1.09.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Pure Storage news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 8,895 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.11, for a total value of $570,258.45. Following the transaction, the executive now owns 72,927 shares in the company, valued at $4,675,349.97. The trade was a 10.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ajay Singh sold 19,972 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.58, for a total transaction of $1,229,875.76. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 262,144 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,142,827.52. The trade was a 7.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 6.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on PSTG. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $63.00 price objective (up from $59.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of Pure Storage from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Pure Storage from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $56.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Bank of America dropped their target price on Pure Storage from $77.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price target on Pure Storage from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. One 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $73.20.

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.