45,323 Shares in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Acquired by Teacher Retirement System of Texas

Teacher Retirement System of Texas bought a new stake in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 45,323 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $2,006,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Pure Storage in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $216,690,000. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership bought a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the fourth quarter worth $210,906,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 1,725.3% in the fourth quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,525,208 shares of the technology company's stock worth $155,124,000 after purchasing an additional 2,386,864 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Pure Storage by 25.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,748,553 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $413,982,000 after purchasing an additional 1,366,458 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Pure Storage by 18.8% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,162,081 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $255,677,000 after purchasing an additional 657,175 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Wall Street Zen raised Pure Storage from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Pure Storage from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $69.95.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John Francis Murphy sold 11,234 shares of the business's 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 owned 21,930 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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 accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ajay Singh sold 22,601 shares of the firm's 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 approximately $14,498,234.25. The trade was a 7.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 147,684 shares of company stock worth $7,713,802. 5.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Pure Storage Price Performance

PSTG traded down $1.17 on Friday, hitting $56.39. 2,250,341 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,921,481. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 152.41, a PEG ratio of 5.34 and a beta of 1.06. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 12 month low of $34.51 and a 12 month high of $73.67. The business has a 50-day moving average of $54.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $55.29.

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 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 the consensus estimate of $770.03 million. Pure Storage had a net margin of 3.93% and a return on equity of 13.98%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.32 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 earnings per share 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.