Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ Sells 39,300 Shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Key Points

• Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ reduced its stake in Pure Storage, Inc. (PSTG) by 15.2% in the 1st quarter, owning approximately $9.71 million worth of shares after the sale.
• Pure Storage reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $0.29, beating estimates and showing a 12.3% year-over-year revenue growth.
• 83.42% of Pure Storage's stock is currently held by institutional investors and hedge funds, indicating strong institutional interest in the company.

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ cut its position in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG - Free Report) by 15.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 219,280 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 39,300 shares during the quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ owned 0.07% of Pure Storage worth $9,708,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Pure Storage by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,566,374 shares of the technology company's stock worth $157,652,000 after buying an additional 12,972 shares in the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its stake in Pure Storage by 7.7% in the 1st quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 7,000 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $310,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its stake in Pure Storage by 11.3% in the 1st 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. grew its stake in Pure Storage by 8.4% in the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 7,327 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $324,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares during the period. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 4.0% during 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 last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pure Storage

In other Pure Storage news, Director John Francis Murphy sold 6,959 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.17, for a total value of $390,887.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 19,706 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,106,886.02. This trade represents a 26.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 6,000 shares of the firm'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 sale, the executive owned 75,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,923,592.25. This trade represents a 7.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 147,666 shares of company stock worth $7,819,260 over the last three months. 5.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Pure Storage Price Performance

PSTG stock traded up $0.65 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $60.02. The stock had a trading volume of 448,718 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,754,358. Pure Storage, Inc. has a twelve month low of $34.51 and a twelve month high of $73.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 162.19, a PEG ratio of 5.65 and a beta of 1.06. The company's 50-day moving average price is $55.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $54.74.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 28th. The technology company reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.04. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 13.98% and a net margin of 3.93%. The firm had revenue of $778.49 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $770.03 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $75.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and set a $66.00 price target (up from $53.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Pure Storage from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on Pure Storage from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $69.95.

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.