Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Has $3.72 Million Stock Position in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lowered its stake in shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG - Free Report) by 13.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 84,087 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 12,638 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund's holdings in Pure Storage were worth $3,723,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. World Investment Advisors raised its position in shares of Pure Storage by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 9,635 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $592,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Pure Storage by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 5,775 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $355,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC increased its stake in Pure Storage by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 5,885 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $396,000 after acquiring an additional 157 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in Pure Storage by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 13,271 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $815,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares during the period. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its stake in Pure Storage by 55.9% in the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 650 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 233 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on PSTG. 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 research note on Thursday, May 29th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $75.00 target price on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Friday, June 20th. Citigroup upped their target price 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. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $40.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Pure Storage currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $69.95.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Pure Storage news, Director John Francis Murphy sold 11,234 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.13, for a total value of $619,330.42. Following the sale, the director now owns 21,930 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,209,000.90. The trade was a 33.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 6,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.65, for a total value of $309,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now owns 75,965 shares in the company, valued at $3,923,592.25. The trade was a 7.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 125,083 shares of company stock worth $6,460,576. Company insiders own 5.60% of the company's stock.

Pure Storage Price Performance

PSTG traded down $0.15 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $55.47. The stock had a trading volume of 3,768,917 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,932,933. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $51.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 149.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.28 and a beta of 1.05. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 1-year low of $34.51 and a 1-year high of $73.67.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The technology company reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business's revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 earnings per share 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.