Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Short Interest Down 22.4% in February

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG - Get Free Report) was the target of 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 volume of 3,120,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.9 days. Currently, 3.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

Shares of Pure Storage stock traded up $0.14 on Friday, hitting $50.93. The company had a trading volume of 771,926 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,015,652. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 134.17, a P/E/G ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 1.09. Pure Storage has a 1 year low of $44.76 and a 1 year high of $73.67. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $61.80 and a 200-day moving average of $57.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

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Institutional Trading of Pure Storage

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC raised its stake 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 worth $2,469,487,000 after purchasing an additional 368,643 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Pure Storage by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,443,732 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $2,054,448,000 after acquiring an additional 615,931 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Pure Storage by 6.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,262,666 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $515,596,000 after acquiring an additional 626,427 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 valued at $442,736,000 after acquiring an additional 401,035 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,366,458 shares during the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on PSTG shares. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Pure Storage from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Stifel Nicolaus increased 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. UBS Group upped their target price on Pure Storage from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Piper Sandler upgraded Pure Storage from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their target price for the company from $56.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Northland Securities restated a "market perform" rating and set a $63.00 target price (up previously 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 given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $73.20.

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.