Pitney Bowes Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:PBI)

Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors purchased 4,516 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 204% compared to the average volume of 1,486 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PBI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Truist Financial raised their target price on Pitney Bowes from $11.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Citigroup reiterated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Pitney Bowes in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Pitney Bowes from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 25th. Zacks Research raised shares of Pitney Bowes from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Pitney Bowes from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pitney Bowes presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $16.43.

Insider Transactions at Pitney Bowes

In other Pitney Bowes news, CEO Kurt James Wolf sold 966,561 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.58, for a total transaction of $14,092,459.38. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 452,628 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,599,316.24. The trade was a 68.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders have sold 3,351,337 shares of company stock worth $53,313,134 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 6.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Longview Financial Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Pitney Bowes during the first quarter worth $26,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Pitney Bowes by 41.3% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,472 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 1,015 shares during the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. increased its position in Pitney Bowes by 190.9% during the 4th quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 3,747 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 2,459 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in Pitney Bowes by 404.6% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 4,022 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 3,225 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new position in Pitney Bowes in the 2nd quarter valued at about $51,000. 67.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Pitney Bowes Trading Up 3.4%

Shares of PBI stock traded up $0.60 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $18.30. The stock had a trading volume of 2,632,571 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,883,713. Pitney Bowes has a 12-month low of $8.95 and a 12-month high of $18.62. The company has a market cap of $2.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.62. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $16.56 and a 200 day simple moving average of $12.97.

Pitney Bowes (NYSE:PBI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.47. The business had revenue of $477.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $471.83 million. Pitney Bowes had a negative return on equity of 33.41% and a net margin of 8.92%.The business’s revenue was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.33 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Pitney Bowes will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

Pitney Bowes Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 18th were issued a $0.01 dividend. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 18th. Pitney Bowes’s dividend payout ratio is 38.83%.

Pitney Bowes Company Profile

Pitney Bowes Inc (NYSE: PBI) is an American technology company that specializes in shipping, mailing, and e-commerce solutions. Founded in 1920 by Walter Bowes and Arthur Pitney, the company pioneered postage meter technology and has since evolved to offer a broad portfolio of hardware, software, and services designed to streamline physical and digital communications. Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, Pitney Bowes leverages a century of expertise to serve enterprises, small businesses, and government agencies around the globe.

The company’s core offerings span mailing and shipping equipment, including postage meters, folder inserters, and address verification systems, alongside integrated software platforms for customer information management, data analytics, and location intelligence.