UBS Group Boosts Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Price Target to $50.00

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) had its price objective hoisted by research analysts at UBS Group from $47.00 to $50.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “sell” rating on the technology company’s stock. UBS Group’s price objective suggests a potential downside of 4.62% from the company’s current price.

PSTG has been the topic of several other research reports. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Pure Storage from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Pure Storage from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Lake Street Capital increased their target price on Pure Storage from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Pure Storage from $62.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Oppenheimer initiated coverage on Pure Storage in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $70.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $73.20.

Pure Storage Trading Down 1.5 %

NYSE:PSTG opened at $52.42 on Thursday. Pure Storage has a 1-year low of $44.76 and a 1-year high of $73.67. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $65.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $58.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 137.95, a PEG ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 1.09.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pure Storage

In other Pure Storage news, insider Ajay Singh sold 19,972 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.58, for a total value of $1,229,875.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 262,144 shares in the company, valued at $16,142,827.52. This trade represents a 7.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.55, for a total value of $6,555,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 7,316,722 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $479,611,127.10. This represents a 1.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 137,178 shares of company stock worth $8,871,746 over the last ninety days. 6.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PSTG. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $216,690,000. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $210,906,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 1,725.3% in the fourth quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,525,208 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $155,124,000 after buying an additional 2,386,864 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 210.2% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,553,402 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $137,628,000 after buying an additional 1,730,123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 25.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,748,553 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $413,982,000 after buying an additional 1,366,458 shares during the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.