Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)’s share price gapped down before the market opened on Thursday after Bank of America lowered their price target on the stock from $77.00 to $73.00. The stock had previously closed at $62.44, but opened at $55.18. Bank of America currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Pure Storage shares last traded at $53.82, with a volume of 1,419,197 shares.

PSTG has been the topic of a number of other reports. Barclays boosted their target price on Pure Storage from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Pure Storage from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $63.00 target price (up from $59.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Pure Storage from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, November 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $73.20.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pure Storage

In other news, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.55, for a total value of $6,555,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,316,722 shares in the company, valued at approximately $479,611,127.10. The trade was a 1.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Mona Chu sold 8,311 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.16, for a total value of $516,611.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 67,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,207,050.96. This trade represents a 10.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 137,178 shares of company stock valued at $8,871,746. Company insiders own 6.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pure Storage

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Pure Storage by 0.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,153,797 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,469,487,000 after purchasing an additional 368,643 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Pure Storage by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,443,732 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,054,448,000 after buying an additional 615,931 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Pure Storage by 6.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,262,666 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $515,596,000 after buying an additional 626,427 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Pure Storage by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,207,162 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $442,736,000 after buying an additional 401,035 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Pure Storage by 25.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,748,553 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $413,982,000 after buying an additional 1,366,458 shares in the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Pure Storage Stock Down 12.9 %

The company has a 50-day moving average of $66.09 and a 200 day moving average of $58.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.75 billion, a PE ratio of 141.69, a PEG ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 1.09.

About Pure Storage

Pure Storage, Inc engages in the provision of data storage and management technologies, products, and services in the United States and internationally. Its Purity software is shared across its products and provides enterprise-class data services, such as always-on data reduction, data protection, and encryption, as well as storage protocols, including block, file, and object.