Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Decreases Stake in Pure Storage, Inc. $PSTG

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund cut its position in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) by 7.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 77,407 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 6,680 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Pure Storage were worth $4,457,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of PSTG. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Pure Storage by 35.6% in the first quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 910 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Pure Storage by 53.1% during the 1st quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 19,741 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $874,000 after acquiring an additional 6,850 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 2.2% during the first quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 162,454 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $7,192,000 after purchasing an additional 3,500 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its stake in Pure Storage by 26.7% in the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 8,309 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $368,000 after purchasing an additional 1,751 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC raised its holdings in Pure Storage by 25.3% during the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 4,017 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $178,000 after purchasing an additional 812 shares in the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on PSTG. Lake Street Capital lifted their target price on Pure Storage from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 28th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Pure Storage in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Northland Securities lifted their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $63.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 28th. Wedbush increased their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Pure Storage from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 28th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pure Storage currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.65.

Pure Storage Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of PSTG stock opened at $88.58 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $29.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 216.06, a P/E/G ratio of 8.99 and a beta of 1.24. Pure Storage, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $34.51 and a fifty-two week high of $100.59. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $89.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $67.77.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, September 9th. The technology company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Pure Storage had a net margin of 4.15% and a return on equity of 11.34%. The company had revenue of $763.77 million during the quarter. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Ajay Singh sold 7,014 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.85, for a total value of $602,151.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 229,307 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,686,005.95. The trade was a 2.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 6,051 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.42, for a total value of $528,978.42. Following the sale, the executive directly owned 62,759 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,486,391.78. The trade was a 8.79% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 443,111 shares of company stock worth $36,793,439 in the last quarter. 5.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Pure Storage Profile

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.