Russell Investments Group Ltd. Boosts Stake in Pure Storage, Inc. $PSTG

Key Points

• Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in Pure Storage, Inc. by 33.9%, now owning approximately $9.4 million worth of shares after acquiring an additional 53,878 shares in the first quarter.
• Multiple institutional investors have also boosted their positions, with MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increasing its holdings by 55.9% during the same period.
• Pure Storage's stock has recently been rated as a "Moderate Buy" by analysts, with an average price target of $70.21, reflecting growing investor confidence in the company's future performance.

Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its position in shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG - Free Report) by 33.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 212,813 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 53,878 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned about 0.07% of Pure Storage worth $9,421,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its position in shares of Pure Storage by 55.9% during the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 650 shares of the technology company's stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 233 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Pure Storage by 35.6% in the first quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 910 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the period. Mutual Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 5.1% in the first quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 5,173 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $236,000 after buying an additional 252 shares during the last quarter. MBM Wealth Consultants LLC boosted its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 2.3% during the first quarter. MBM Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 11,372 shares of the technology company's stock worth $503,000 after buying an additional 252 shares during the period. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 0.9% during the first quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 29,481 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,305,000 after buying an additional 261 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Pure Storage news, Director John Francis Murphy sold 11,234 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.13, for a total value of $619,330.42. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 21,930 shares in the company, valued at $1,209,000.90. The trade was a 33.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 198,749 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 500,000 shares in the company, valued at $30,160,000. This represents a 28.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 446,794 shares of company stock valued at $26,641,913. 5.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PSTG has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Pure Storage from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of 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 restated an "overweight" rating and set a $66.00 price objective (up previously from $53.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $40.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Pure Storage currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $70.21.

Pure Storage Price Performance

Shares of Pure Storage stock opened at $58.62 on Tuesday. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 1 year low of $34.51 and a 1 year high of $73.67. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $56.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $53.72. The company has a market capitalization of $19.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 158.43, a P/E/G ratio of 5.58 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 company 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 business's revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect 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.

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