Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Takes $284,000 Position in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Key Points

• Banque Cantonale Vaudoise acquired 6,421 shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) for approximately $284,000 during the first quarter.
• Analysts have mixed ratings for Pure Storage, with one upgrading to a price target of $66.00, while others have downgraded expectations, resulting in an average target price of $69.95.
• Pure Storage reported a 12.3% year-over-year revenue increase of $778.49 million, exceeding expectations, and recorded earnings per share of $0.29 for the quarter.

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise acquired a new position in shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 6,421 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $284,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Pure Storage by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,207,162 shares of the technology company's stock worth $442,736,000 after buying an additional 401,035 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Pure Storage by 25.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,748,553 shares of the technology company's stock worth $413,982,000 after buying an additional 1,366,458 shares during the period. Champlain Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Pure Storage by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 5,921,392 shares of the technology company's stock worth $363,751,000 after buying an additional 174,449 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 18.8% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,162,081 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $255,677,000 after purchasing an additional 657,175 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,118,774 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $191,586,000 after purchasing an additional 91,368 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.42% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.65, for a total value of $309,900.00. Following the transaction, the executive owned 75,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,923,592.25. This represents a 7.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John Francis Murphy sold 6,959 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.17, for a total value of $390,887.03. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 19,706 shares in the company, valued at $1,106,886.02. The trade was a 26.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 547,666 shares of company stock worth $31,887,830. 5.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on PSTG. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Pure Storage from $40.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $70.00 price objective on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $66.00 price objective (up from $53.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Pure Storage from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Pure Storage from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Pure Storage presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $69.95.

Pure Storage Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of PSTG stock traded down $0.22 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $56.03. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,244,722 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,185,027. The company has a market cap of $18.31 billion, a PE ratio of 151.43, a P/E/G ratio of 5.35 and a beta of 1.07. The business has a fifty day moving average of $55.56 and a 200-day moving average of $54.47. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 52 week low of $34.51 and a 52 week high of $73.67.

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

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.