Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Shares Gap Down Following Insider Selling

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG - Get Free Report) shares gapped down prior to trading on Friday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock had previously closed at $51.82, but opened at $50.32. Pure Storage shares last traded at $50.66, with a volume of 550,850 shares.

Specifically, CFO P. Kevan Krysler sold 15,286 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.80, for a total value of $807,100.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 507,824 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $26,813,107.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Pure Storage news, CFO P. Kevan Krysler sold 15,286 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.80, for a total value of $807,100.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 507,824 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $26,813,107.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 29,283 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.14, for a total value of $1,526,815.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now directly owns 138,105 shares in the company, valued at $7,200,794.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 286,581 shares of company stock worth $15,266,704. 6.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on PSTG shares. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Pure Storage from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $66.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Susquehanna upped their price target on Pure Storage from $45.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on Pure Storage from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pure Storage currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $51.63.

Pure Storage Stock Down 4.6 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.83 and a quick ratio of 1.80. The firm has a market cap of $16.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 290.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.79 and a beta of 1.15. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $49.93 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.07.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The technology company reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $784.31 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.27 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pure Storage

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Pure Storage in the fourth quarter valued at about $90,143,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake 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 valued at $359,464,000 after buying an additional 2,807,489 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake 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 valued at $57,520,000 after buying an additional 1,587,116 shares during the period. Spyglass Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Pure Storage in the fourth quarter valued at about $36,678,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 61.5% in the third quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 3,399,759 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $121,081,000 after buying an additional 1,294,285 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% of the company's stock.

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.