Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Stock Price Up 1.5% Following Analyst Upgrade

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG - Get Free Report) shares were up 1.5% on Thursday after Susquehanna raised their price target on the stock from $45.00 to $65.00. Susquehanna currently has a positive rating on the stock. Pure Storage traded as high as $54.30 and last traded at $53.93. Approximately 884,078 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 4,743,952 shares. The stock had previously closed at $53.14.

PSTG has been the subject of several other research reports. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $41.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pure Storage presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $50.53.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pure Storage

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pure Storage

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Pure Storage by 1.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 46,793,394 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,666,781,000 after buying an additional 663,465 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings 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 increased 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 worth $359,464,000 after buying an additional 2,807,489 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased 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 worth $153,054,000 after buying an additional 140,541 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Polar Capital Holdings Plc increased its holdings in Pure Storage by 33.8% during the third quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc now owns 4,068,672 shares of the technology company's stock worth $144,926,000 after buying an additional 1,028,104 shares during the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $17.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 323.47, a P/E/G ratio of 6.98 and a beta of 1.15. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $48.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.34. The company has a quick ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The technology company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $789.81 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $784.31 million. Pure Storage had a net margin of 2.17% and a return on equity of 12.60%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.27 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current year.

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.