Ground Swell Capital LLC Makes New $242,000 Investment in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Ground Swell Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 5,470 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $242,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PSTG. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Pure Storage during the first quarter worth about $32,410,000. Raiffeisen Bank International AG bought a new position in Pure Storage during the fourth quarter worth about $33,925,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new position in shares of Pure Storage during the 1st quarter valued at about $24,462,000. Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 9,041.4% during the 4th quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 521,516 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $32,037,000 after purchasing an additional 515,811 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 18.2% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,888,060 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $177,414,000 after purchasing an additional 443,728 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

Pure Storage Stock Up 0.3%

NYSE:PSTG opened at $59.57 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 161.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.65 and a beta of 1.07. Pure Storage, Inc. has a twelve month low of $34.51 and a twelve month high of $73.67. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $56.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $54.09.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The technology company reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $778.49 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $770.03 million. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 13.98% and a net margin of 3.93%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.32 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on PSTG shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Pure Storage from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $66.00 price objective (up previously from $53.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Pure Storage from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Pure Storage from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pure Storage presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.21.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.65, for a total transaction of $309,900.00. Following the transaction, the executive directly owned 75,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,923,592.25. The trade was a 7.32% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Ajay Singh sold 22,601 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.45, for a total value of $1,253,225.45. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 261,465 shares in the company, valued at $14,498,234.25. The trade was a 7.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 446,794 shares of company stock valued at $26,641,913 over the last 90 days. 5.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.