Corbyn Investment Management Inc. MD Increases Stock Position in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Key Points

• Corbyn Investment Management Inc. MD increased its stake in Pure Storage, Inc. (PSTG) by 99.6%, owning 12,364 shares worth $547,000 after acquiring 6,169 additional shares in Q1.
• During the fourth quarter, several hedge funds, including T. Rowe Price and Invesco, also raised their positions in Pure Storage, indicating strong institutional interest with 83.42% of the stock held by institutional investors.
• Insiders have recently sold large quantities of Pure Storage shares, with notable transactions including 198,749 shares sold by John Colgrove for approximately $12 million, indicating potential shifts in insider confidence.

Corbyn Investment Management Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG - Free Report) by 99.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,364 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 6,169 shares during the period. Corbyn Investment Management Inc. MD's holdings in Pure Storage were worth $547,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of PSTG. D.A. Davidson & CO. boosted its stake in Pure Storage by 7.7% during 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 holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 11.3% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 5,339 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $236,000 after purchasing an additional 542 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 8.4% during the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 7,327 shares of the technology company's stock worth $324,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 121,895 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $5,396,000 after buying an additional 4,687 shares during the period. Finally, Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 9.6% in the 1st quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 7,042 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $312,000 after buying an additional 616 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 dated 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 sale, the insider directly 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 198,749 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 500,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,160,000. The trade was a 28.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 547,666 shares of company stock worth $31,887,830. Insiders own 5.60% of the company's stock.

Pure Storage Stock Up 0.7%

Pure Storage stock traded up $0.41 during trading on Thursday, hitting $57.84. The stock had a trading volume of 1,572,054 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,086,319. The stock's 50 day moving average is $55.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $54.50. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 1 year low of $34.51 and a 1 year high of $73.67. The stock has a market cap of $18.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 156.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.46 and a beta of 1.07.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG - Get Free Report) last posted 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. The company had revenue of $778.49 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PSTG has been the subject of several recent research reports. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and set a $66.00 price objective (up previously from $53.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Citigroup raised their target price on Pure Storage from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Pure Storage from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $69.95.

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.