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Factors to Note Ahead of Pure Storage's (PSTG) Q3 Earnings

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Pure Storage, Inc. (PSTG - Free Report) is slated to release third-quarter fiscal 2021 results on Nov 24.

On Nov 5, 2020, the company reported preliminary fiscal third-quarter 2021 results, per which revenues are expected to be $410 million. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal third-quarter revenues stands at $406.4 million.

Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the fiscal third-quarter bottom line is unchanged over the past 30 days at loss of one cent, against an earnings of 13 cents in the year-ago quarter.

Factors Likely to Have Influenced Q3 Results

Pure Storage’s fiscal third-quarter performance is likely to have benefited from solid uptake of cloud storage solutions, including Cloud Block Store, ObjectEngine Cloud, and CloudSnap.

Moreover, adoption of new remote install options for FlashArray and FlashBlade, which enable the installation of systems with limited personnel amid ongoing coronavirus crisis-induced social distancing norms, might have contributed to the to-be-reported quarter’s performance.

Pure Storage, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

Pure Storage, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

Pure Storage, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Pure Storage, Inc. Quote

During the fiscal third quarter, Pure Storage rolled out second generation FlashArray//C — a cost effective storage array solution to provide customers with higher performance capabilities and enable them to run complex cloud workloads onto a single platform — in a bid to capitalize on growing clout of flash-based offerings.

The company also made improvements to its VMWare’s cloud portfolio for offerings including vSphere Virtual Volumes with VMware Cloud Foundation, Cloud Native Storage for Kubernetes on VMware, VMware Site Recovery Manager and NVMe over Fabric. The aim is to accelerate deployment of hybrid cloud offerings.

Markedly, Pure Storage inked deal to acquire Portworx to expand its cloud-services solutions for Kubernetes technology. The buyout, valued at $370 million, is the most expensive one for Pure Storage till date.

Further, Pure Storage might have gained from solid traction of latest subscription-based Evergreen, Modern Data Experience and Pure as-a-Service solutions in the quarter to be reported. The robust adoption of latest subscription services is anticipated to have driven profitability in the fiscal third quarter.

Besides, strength in its Pure1 META platform — that enables customers to forecast performance requirements to more accurately and timely provision of resources — might get reflected in the fiscal third-quarter results.

Additionally, the coronavirus pandemic-induced work-from-home, online learning and tele-healthcare wave that has led to increasing adoption of cloud-based storage might have driven adoption of Pure Storage’s hybrid multi-cloud offerings and cloud data services. It is expected to have positively influenced the fiscal third-quarter performance.

Notably, in second-quarter fiscal 2021, the company added more than 300 customers, bringing the total count to more than 8,150 organizations. The momentum is likely to have continued and contributed to revenues in the fiscal third quarter.

Pure Storage currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

In fact, during the quarter under review, Atlantic Health Partners selected Pure Storage solutions to support its data infrastructure and Epic electronic health record (EHR) system. The migration will enable Atlantic Health Partners save up to a million dollars over the next six years.

However, growing expenses on product development and acquisitions amid stiff competition from storage peers including NetApp (NTAP - Free Report) and Dell Technologies (DELL - Free Report) might have limited margin expansion in the fiscal third quarter.

Also, coronavirus crisis led broader macroeconomic weakness has been compelling enterprises to trim IT spend, which is anticipated to have affected Pure Storage’s business in the to-be-reported quarter.

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