What happened
Shares of enterprise data storage platform Pure Storage (PSTG 4.10%) jumped on Wednesday, rising as much as 11.1%. The stock is up 10.8% at the time of this writing. The jump follows a price target increase from Barclays analyst Mark Moskowitz (via The Fly).
Moskowitz upgraded his rating from equal weight to overweight, or a rating that indicates an analyst believes the stock has a better-than-average chance of outperforming market indexes.
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So what
Moskowitz increased his price target from $19 to $22, or $3 higher. Even after today's higher stock price, Pure Storage trades at about $18. He believes Pure Storage's enterprise data storage platform is poised to gain market share as it uses "its software advantage to win new deployments," wrote The Fly.
In its most recently reported quarter, the company demonstrated its momentum with a 41% year-over-year increase in revenue and over 300 new customers, bringing the total to more than 4,000 organizations. Fortune 500 companies comprise over 25% of Pure Storage's customers.
Now what
CEO Charlie Giancarlo asserts that Pure Storage's offerings are simpler and more effective than those of competitors. The company's clear value proposition will likely help it stand out from peers in 2018.
For Pure Storage's fourth quarter of fiscal 2018, which started on Nov. 1, 2017, management expects its first profitable quarter on a non-GAAP basis.
