Brown Advisory Inc. Cuts Position in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Brown Advisory Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG - Free Report) by 4.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 162,853 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 7,455 shares during the quarter. Brown Advisory Inc.'s holdings in Pure Storage were worth $7,210,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PSTG. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the first quarter valued at about $213,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Pure Storage by 6.2% during the first quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,394 shares of the technology company's stock worth $327,000 after acquiring an additional 429 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors lifted its holdings in Pure Storage by 85.3% during the first quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 17,855 shares of the technology company's stock worth $790,000 after acquiring an additional 8,220 shares during the period. Wayfinding Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the first quarter valued at $58,000. Finally, IFM Investors Pty Ltd raised its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 3.0% in the first quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 62,116 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $2,750,000 after buying an additional 1,804 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on PSTG shares. Wall Street Zen raised Pure Storage from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Pure Storage from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Pure Storage from $40.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Pure Storage from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $70.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, May 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $69.95.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pure Storage

In other news, insider Ajay Singh sold 22,601 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.45, for a total transaction of $1,253,225.45. Following the transaction, the insider owned 261,465 shares in the company, valued at $14,498,234.25. This represents a 7.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John Francis Murphy sold 11,234 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.13, for a total value of $619,330.42. Following the transaction, the director owned 21,930 shares in the company, valued at $1,209,000.90. This trade represents a 33.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 147,684 shares of company stock valued at $7,713,802 in the last ninety days. 5.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Pure Storage Trading Up 0.1%

NYSE:PSTG traded up $0.08 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $54.55. 1,703,636 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,914,522. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 147.43, a PEG ratio of 5.34 and a beta of 1.06. Pure Storage, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $34.51 and a fifty-two week high of $73.67. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $54.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $55.15.

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 for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $778.49 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $770.03 million. Pure Storage had a net margin of 3.93% and a return on equity of 13.98%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current year.

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.