Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Sells 996 Shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lowered its stake in shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) by 3.4% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 28,431 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 996 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Pure Storage were worth $1,428,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PSTG. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV increased its position 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 worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 242.9% during the second quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 432 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 306 shares during the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in Pure Storage in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Pure Storage in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, City State Bank grew its holdings in Pure Storage by 175.0% during the 2nd quarter. City State Bank now owns 550 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 350 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on Pure Storage from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Lake Street Capital lowered their price target on Pure Storage from $70.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $60.00 to $56.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $70.00 target price on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $67.95.

Pure Storage Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PSTG opened at $51.66 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.99 and a quick ratio of 1.96. The business has a 50-day moving average of $51.70 and a 200-day moving average of $56.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 129.15, a PEG ratio of 6.77 and a beta of 1.10. Pure Storage, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $31.00 and a fifty-two week high of $70.41.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The technology company reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.10. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 17.41% and a net margin of 4.53%. The firm had revenue of $763.77 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $756.59 million. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Pure Storage news, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.94, for a total transaction of $4,994,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 500,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,970,000. The trade was a 16.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Mona Chu sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.32, for a total transaction of $1,258,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 96,639 shares in the company, valued at $4,862,874.48. The trade was a 20.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 354,542 shares of company stock valued at $18,599,030. 6.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.