Susquehanna Increases Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Price Target to $65.00

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG - Get Free Report) had its target price hoisted by research analysts at Susquehanna from $45.00 to $65.00 in a research note issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a "positive" rating on the technology company's stock. Susquehanna's price objective would indicate a potential upside of 18.20% from the stock's current price.

PSTG has been the subject of a number of other reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and issued a $66.00 target price on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Pure Storage from $41.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Pure Storage from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Pure Storage from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $50.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $50.53.

Pure Storage Stock Up 3.5 %

NYSE:PSTG traded up $1.85 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $54.99. The stock had a trading volume of 3,911,850 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,789,419. The company has a market capitalization of $17.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 323.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.98 and a beta of 1.15. Pure Storage has a 1-year low of $22.14 and a 1-year high of $58.46. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $48.91 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $40.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.83 and a quick ratio of 1.80.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The technology company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.10. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 2.17%. The business had revenue of $789.81 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $784.31 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.27 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Pure Storage will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Roxanne Taylor sold 36,860 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.76, for a total transaction of $1,981,593.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 18,883 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,015,150.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Ajay Singh sold 37,588 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.54, for a total transaction of $2,012,461.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 380,834 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,389,852.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Roxanne Taylor sold 36,860 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.76, for a total value of $1,981,593.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 18,883 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,015,150.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 6.50% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Pure Storage

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 1.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 46,793,394 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,666,781,000 after acquiring an additional 663,465 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Pure Storage by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,294,297 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,115,955,000 after buying an additional 567,358 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Pure Storage by 24.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,091,077 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $359,464,000 after acquiring an additional 2,807,489 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Pure Storage by 3.4% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,296,843 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $153,054,000 after acquiring an additional 140,541 shares during the period. Finally, Polar Capital Holdings Plc lifted its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 33.8% in the third quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc now owns 4,068,672 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $144,926,000 after buying an additional 1,028,104 shares during the period. 83.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Pure Storage Company Profile

Pure Storage, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides data storage technologies, products, and services in the United States and internationally. The company's Purity software is shared across its products and provides enterprise-class data services, such as data reduction, data protection, and encryption, as well as storage protocols, including block, file, and object.