Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Downgraded by Raymond James to Outperform

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG - Get Free Report) was downgraded by investment analysts at Raymond James from a "strong-buy" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report issued on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $63.00 target price on the technology company's stock, up from their prior target price of $52.00. Raymond James' target price suggests a potential upside of 27.38% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on PSTG. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Friday, March 15th. They set a "buy" rating and a $65.00 price target on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $66.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $42.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $42.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $51.63.

Pure Storage Price Performance

Shares of PSTG traded down $2.36 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $49.46. The company had a trading volume of 4,791,890 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,665,894. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $49.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The company has a market capitalization of $16.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 290.96, a PEG ratio of 6.79 and a beta of 1.15. Pure Storage has a 12-month low of $22.14 and a 12-month high of $58.46.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The technology company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.10. Pure Storage had a net margin of 2.17% and a return on equity of 12.60%. The firm 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 posted $0.27 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Pure Storage will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pure Storage

In other Pure Storage news, CFO P. Kevan Krysler sold 15,286 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.80, for a total transaction of $807,100.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 507,824 shares in the company, valued at $26,813,107.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Pure Storage news, CFO P. Kevan Krysler sold 15,286 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.80, for a total transaction of $807,100.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 507,824 shares in the company, valued at $26,813,107.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 29,283 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.14, for a total transaction of $1,526,815.62. Following the sale, the executive now owns 138,105 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,200,794.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 286,581 shares of company stock worth $15,266,704 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 6.50% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pure Storage

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PSTG. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Pure Storage during the fourth quarter valued at $90,143,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Pure Storage by 24.9% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,091,077 shares of the technology company's stock worth $359,464,000 after purchasing an additional 2,807,489 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in Pure Storage by 5,725.3% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,614,837 shares of the technology company's stock worth $57,520,000 after purchasing an additional 1,587,116 shares during the period. Spyglass Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Pure Storage in the fourth quarter worth about $36,678,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Pure Storage by 61.5% in the 3rd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 3,399,759 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $121,081,000 after acquiring an additional 1,294,285 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% of the company's stock.

About Pure Storage

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.