Cerity Partners LLC Buys 6,850 Shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG - Free Report) by 53.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 19,741 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 6,850 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC's holdings in Pure Storage were worth $874,000 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 business. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Pure Storage by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,566,374 shares of the technology company's stock worth $157,652,000 after acquiring an additional 12,972 shares in the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its position in Pure Storage by 7.7% in the first quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 7,000 shares of the technology company's stock worth $310,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its position in Pure Storage by 11.3% in the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 5,339 shares of the technology company's stock worth $236,000 after acquiring an additional 542 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. raised its position in Pure Storage by 8.4% in the first quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 7,327 shares of the technology company's stock worth $324,000 after acquiring an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Pure Storage by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 121,895 shares of the technology company's stock worth $5,396,000 after buying an additional 4,687 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Ajay Singh sold 22,601 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.45, for a total transaction of $1,253,225.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 261,465 shares in the company, valued at $14,498,234.25. The trade was a 7.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.01, for a total value of $5,201,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 801,959 shares of the company's stock, valued at $41,709,887.59. The trade was a 11.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 147,666 shares of company stock worth $7,819,260 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 5.60% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PSTG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $75.00 price objective on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Friday, June 20th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Pure Storage from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, May 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price 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. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $66.00 target price (up previously from $53.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Pure Storage from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday. One 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, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $69.95.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE PSTG traded up $0.60 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $57.56. The stock had a trading volume of 1,435,545 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,184,357. The company has a market capitalization of $18.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 155.57, a P/E/G ratio of 5.42 and a beta of 1.06. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $55.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $54.88. 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 announced its 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. The firm had revenue of $778.49 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $770.03 million. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 13.98% and a net margin of 3.93%. The company's revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal 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.