Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Holdings Boosted by Blair William & Co. IL

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

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. McIlrath & Eck LLC bought a new position in Pure Storage in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its holdings in Pure Storage by 55.9% in the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 650 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares during the period. FNY Investment Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 5,233.3% during the 1st quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 800 shares of the technology company's stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 785 shares during the period. TruNorth Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Pure Storage in the 1st quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Pure Storage by 35.6% during the 1st quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 910 shares of the technology company's stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 239 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PSTG has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Pure Storage from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 26th. Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $40.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. One 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pure Storage currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $69.95.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

Pure Storage stock traded up $0.06 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $57.49. The company's stock had a trading volume of 489,482 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,729,394. The company has a 50 day moving average of $55.62 and a 200-day moving average of $54.50. The stock has a market cap of $18.79 billion, a PE ratio of 155.43, a P/E/G ratio of 5.32 and a beta of 1.07. Pure Storage, Inc. has a one year low of $34.51 and a one year high of $73.67.

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

Insider Transactions at Pure Storage

In other Pure Storage news, Director John Francis Murphy sold 6,959 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.17, for a total transaction of $390,887.03. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 19,706 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,106,886.02. This represents a 26.10% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 198,749 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.32, for a total value of $11,988,539.68. Following the transaction, the insider owned 500,000 shares in the company, valued at $30,160,000. The trade was a 28.44% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 547,666 shares of company stock valued at $31,887,830. Corporate insiders own 5.60% of the company's stock.

Pure Storage Company Profile

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.