Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Short Interest Update

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) saw a large decrease in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 9,160,000 shares, a decrease of 22.4% from the February 13th total of 11,810,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 3,120,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.9 days. Approximately 3.0% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Pure Storage Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE:PSTG traded down $0.84 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $49.86. The stock had a trading volume of 2,380,722 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,031,935. The company has a market capitalization of $16.26 billion, a PE ratio of 131.20, a P/E/G ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 1.09. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $62.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $57.33. Pure Storage has a 1 year low of $44.76 and a 1 year high of $73.67.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on PSTG. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $75.00 target price on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Pure Storage from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $56.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $63.00 target price (up from $59.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pure Storage has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $73.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 8,895 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.11, for a total value of $570,258.45. Following the sale, the executive now directly owns 72,927 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,675,349.97. This trade represents a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Ajay Singh sold 19,972 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.58, for a total transaction of $1,229,875.76. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 262,144 shares in the company, valued at $16,142,827.52. The trade was a 7.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 6.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Pure Storage

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. McIlrath & Eck LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Compass Financial Services Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Pure Storage in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 49.1% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 644 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 212 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

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.