Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Holdings Raised by Cetera Investment Advisers

Cetera Investment Advisers grew its holdings in shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG - Free Report) by 12.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 82,146 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 8,878 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers' holdings in Pure Storage were worth $3,637,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake 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. Champlain Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 5,921,392 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $363,751,000 after acquiring an additional 174,449 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 18.8% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,162,081 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $255,677,000 after acquiring an additional 657,175 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Pure Storage by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,118,774 shares of the technology company's stock worth $191,586,000 after acquiring an additional 91,368 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 18.2% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,888,060 shares of the technology company's stock worth $177,414,000 after acquiring an additional 443,728 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on PSTG shares. Morgan Stanley raised 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 reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Pure Storage from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $69.95.

Pure Storage Trading Up 1.2%

PSTG traded up $0.69 during trading on Friday, reaching $58.50. 719,701 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,723,102. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 52 week low of $34.51 and a 52 week high of $73.67. The firm 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 $19.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 158.21, a PEG ratio of 5.46 and a beta of 1.07.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly 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 net margin of 3.93% and a return on equity of 13.98%. The company had revenue of $778.49 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $770.03 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Colgrove sold 198,749 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on 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 directly owned 500,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $30,160,000. This trade represents a 28.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 6,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.65, for a total transaction of $309,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive directly owned 75,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,923,592.25. This represents a 7.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 547,666 shares of company stock valued at $31,887,830. 5.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Pure Storage 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.