Blair William & Co. IL Increases Position in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Key Points

• Blair William & Co. IL increased its stake in Pure Storage, Inc. by 2.8% in Q1, now owning 3,541,445 shares valued at approximately $156.8 million.
• Insider transactions included Director John Francis Murphy selling 6,959 shares, while John Colgrove sold 198,749 shares, indicating significant fluctuations in their holdings.
• Pure Storage has an average price target of $69.95 with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from analysts, reflecting positive market sentiment.

Blair William & Co. IL increased its stake in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG - Free Report) by 2.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,541,445 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 96,731 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL owned 1.09% of Pure Storage worth $156,780,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. McIlrath & Eck LLC acquired a new stake in Pure Storage during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its holdings in Pure Storage by 55.9% during the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 650 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 233 shares during the last quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC grew its holdings in Pure Storage by 5,233.3% during the 1st quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 800 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 785 shares during the last quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Pure Storage during the 1st quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Pure Storage by 35.6% during the 1st quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 910 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.42% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pure Storage

In other news, Director John Francis Murphy sold 6,959 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.17, for a total transaction of $390,887.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 19,706 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,106,886.02. This represents a 26.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 198,749 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.32, for a total transaction of $11,988,539.68. Following the transaction, the insider owned 500,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $30,160,000. This represents a 28.44% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 547,666 shares of company stock worth $31,887,830 in the last ninety days. 5.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Pure Storage Trading Down 8.4%

Shares of NYSE:PSTG opened at $54.54 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $55.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $54.62. The firm has a market cap of $17.83 billion, a PE ratio of 147.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.19 and a beta of 1.07. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 12-month low of $34.51 and a 12-month high of $73.67.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on PSTG shares. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and issued a $75.00 target price on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Friday, June 20th. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $66.00 target price (up from $53.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Pure Storage from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, July 26th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $69.95.

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.

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