Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Decreases Stake in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. cut its stake in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) by 38.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,293,742 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 793,302 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned 0.39% of Pure Storage worth $64,998,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of PSTG. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV grew its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 61.2% during the second quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 424 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 242.9% in the second quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 432 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 306 shares during the period. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Pure Storage in the second quarter worth about $33,000. ORG Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Pure Storage during the second quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, City State Bank boosted its position in Pure Storage by 175.0% in the second quarter. City State Bank now owns 550 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 350 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.94, for a total transaction of $4,994,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 500,000 shares in the company, valued at $24,970,000. The trade was a 16.67 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 8,895 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.67, for a total transaction of $450,709.65. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now directly owns 94,446 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,785,578.82. This represents a 8.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 354,542 shares of company stock valued at $18,599,030. Insiders own 6.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on PSTG. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $65.00 to $60.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Oppenheimer began coverage on Pure Storage in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $70.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Pure Storage from $67.00 to $63.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $59.00 target price (down from $68.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pure Storage currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $67.95.

Pure Storage Stock Down 3.1 %

Shares of NYSE PSTG opened at $52.89 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $17.33 billion, a PE ratio of 132.23, a P/E/G ratio of 7.30 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Pure Storage, Inc. has a 12-month low of $31.00 and a 12-month high of $70.41. The company has a 50-day moving average of $52.02 and a 200 day moving average of $56.83.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The technology company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.10. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 17.41% and a net margin of 4.53%. The business had revenue of $763.77 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $756.59 million. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pure Storage Company 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.