National Pension Service Trims Position in Pure Storage, Inc. $PSTG

Key Points

• The National Pension Service reduced its stake in Pure Storage, Inc. by 92.3%, now holding only 45,559 shares valued at approximately $2 million.
• Despite the sell-off by the National Pension Service, other large investors like T. Rowe Price and Northern Trust have increased their holdings in Pure Storage.
• Wall Street analysts have a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" on Pure Storage shares, with a target price averaging $70.21.

National Pension Service trimmed its stake in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG - Free Report) by 92.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 45,559 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 546,200 shares during the period. National Pension Service's holdings in Pure Storage were worth $2,017,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of PSTG. LPL Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Pure Storage by 22.6% during the first quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 118,368 shares of the technology company's stock worth $5,240,000 after purchasing an additional 21,812 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Pure Storage by 13.4% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 275,796 shares of the technology company's stock worth $12,209,000 after buying an additional 32,611 shares during the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its position 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 buying an additional 500 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its position in Pure Storage by 11.3% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 5,339 shares of the technology company's stock worth $236,000 after buying an additional 542 shares during the period. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 8.4% in the first quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 7,327 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $324,000 after buying an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pure Storage

In other Pure Storage news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 6,000 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.65, for a total transaction of $309,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive owned 75,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,923,592.25. The trade was a 7.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Ajay Singh sold 22,601 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 446,794 shares of company stock valued at $26,641,913. Insiders own 5.60% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on PSTG shares. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Morgan Stanley raised 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 report on Tuesday, May 20th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $66.00 target price (up from $53.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $70.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $70.21.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

PSTG traded down $1.52 on Wednesday, hitting $55.70. 1,927,759 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,691,886. The business's fifty day moving average is $56.31 and its 200 day moving average is $53.74. Pure Storage, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $34.51 and a fifty-two week high of $73.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 150.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.56 and a beta of 1.07.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The technology company reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $778.49 million for 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.32 EPS. Pure Storage has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. FY 2026 guidance at EPS. Analysts forecast that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Pure Storage

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.