Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Increases Stake in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG - Free Report) by 3.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,010,210 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 58,054 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned 0.62% of Pure Storage worth $88,992,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. World Investment Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 9,635 shares of the technology company's stock worth $592,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the period. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp raised its holdings in Pure Storage by 2.7% in 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 period. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 157 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 186 shares during the period. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 233 shares during the period. 83.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Pure Storage news, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.01, for a total value of $5,201,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 801,959 shares of the company's stock, valued at $41,709,887.59. The trade was a 11.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director John Francis Murphy sold 11,234 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.13, for a total transaction of $619,330.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,930 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,209,000.90. This represents a 33.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 125,083 shares of company stock valued at $6,460,576 over the last 90 days. 5.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PSTG has been the topic of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and issued a $75.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Friday, June 20th. Evercore ISI raised their price target 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 target 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, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $69.95.

Pure Storage Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:PSTG opened at $55.47 on Monday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.90 and a 200 day simple moving average of $55.75. The firm has a market cap of $18.13 billion, a PE ratio of 149.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.25 and a beta of 1.05. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 12-month low of $34.51 and a 12-month high of $73.67.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The technology company reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $778.49 million during 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 was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.

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