Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Shares Purchased by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. increased its position in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG - Free Report) by 83.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,068,255 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 943,850 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. owned 0.65% of Pure Storage worth $73,754,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Global Retirement Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Pure Storage in the third quarter worth $28,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust purchased a new position in Pure Storage during the 1st quarter valued at $33,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC purchased a new position in Pure Storage during the 4th quarter valued at $45,000. Quarry LP increased its position in Pure Storage by 51.7% during the 1st quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,784 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 608 shares during the period. Finally, Penserra Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Pure Storage during the 1st quarter valued at $47,000. 83.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ajay Singh sold 37,588 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.54, for a total value of $2,012,461.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 380,834 shares in the company, valued at $20,389,852.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, insider Ajay Singh sold 37,588 shares of Pure Storage 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 directly owns 380,834 shares in the company, valued at $20,389,852.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 29,283 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive now owns 138,105 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,200,794.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 271,295 shares of company stock worth $14,459,604 over the last three months. 6.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on PSTG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $42.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $50.53.

Pure Storage Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PSTG traded down $0.49 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $51.83. 2,106,615 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,664,215. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $16.84 billion, a PE ratio of 304.90, a P/E/G ratio of 6.92 and a beta of 1.15. Pure Storage, Inc. has a one year low of $22.14 and a one year high of $58.46. The company's 50 day moving average is $49.93 and its 200 day moving average is $41.07.

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

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.