Short Interest in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Declines By 22.4%

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays upped their price target on Pure Storage from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Pure Storage from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Pure Storage from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Lake Street Capital increased their target price on Pure Storage from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Pure Storage from $62.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pure Storage currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $73.20.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pure Storage

In other Pure Storage news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 8,895 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.11, for a total value of $570,258.45. Following the transaction, the executive now directly owns 72,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,675,349.97. The trade was a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ajay Singh sold 19,972 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.58, for a total value of $1,229,875.76. Following the sale, the insider now owns 262,144 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,142,827.52. This represents 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 currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Pure Storage

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in Pure Storage during the fourth quarter valued at $216,690,000. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership bought a new position in Pure Storage during the fourth quarter valued at $210,906,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Pure Storage by 1,725.3% during the fourth quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,525,208 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $155,124,000 after purchasing an additional 2,386,864 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Pure Storage by 210.2% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,553,402 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $137,628,000 after purchasing an additional 1,730,123 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings 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 valued at $413,982,000 after purchasing an additional 1,366,458 shares during the period. 83.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Pure Storage Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of PSTG traded up $0.08 on Monday, reaching $51.00. 931,640 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,027,137. The stock has a market cap of $16.64 billion, a PE ratio of 134.42, a PEG ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $62.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $57.34. Pure Storage has a 52-week low of $44.76 and a 52-week high of $73.67.

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.