Needham & Company LLC Reiterates “Buy” Rating for Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG)

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by stock analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $100.00 price target on the technology company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 5.15% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on PSTG. Susquehanna downgraded shares of Pure Storage from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $100.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group set a $110.00 target price on Pure Storage in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Pure Storage from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Pure Storage from $72.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised their target price on Pure Storage from $88.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pure Storage currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $94.42.

Pure Storage Price Performance

Pure Storage stock opened at $95.10 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $89.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $71.31. Pure Storage has a 12 month low of $34.51 and a 12 month high of $100.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.25 billion, a PE ratio of 231.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.99 and a beta of 1.24.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 9th. The technology company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Pure Storage had a net margin of 4.15% and a return on equity of 11.34%. The company had revenue of $763.77 million for the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Pure Storage will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Pure Storage

In related news, Director Roxanne Taylor sold 3,000 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.93, for a total transaction of $230,790.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 16,343 shares in the company, valued at $1,257,266.99. The trade was a 15.51% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Mona Chu sold 9,091 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.91, for a total value of $771,916.81. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 107,353 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,115,343.23. The trade was a 7.81% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 330,311 shares of company stock valued at $29,728,890 in the last quarter. 5.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pure Storage

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Winnow Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Pure Storage during the third quarter valued at $26,000. Provenance Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Pure Storage in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in Pure Storage by 287.1% in the 3rd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 329 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Pure Storage during the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 186.6% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 341 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 222 shares in the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Pure Storage

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.