Pitney Bowes Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:PBI)

Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Traders bought 4,516 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 204% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,486 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 shares were sold at an average price of $14.58, for a total transaction of $14,092,459.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 452,628 shares in the company, valued at $6,599,316.24. The trade was a 68.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 3,351,337 shares of company stock worth $53,313,134 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 6.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Pitney Bowes

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. LSV Asset Management boosted its position in Pitney Bowes by 246.7% during the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 4,197,189 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $44,364,000 after acquiring an additional 2,986,689 shares during the period. Cannell & Spears LLC grew its position in Pitney Bowes by 89.5% in the 3rd quarter. Cannell & Spears LLC now owns 3,364,466 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $38,389,000 after buying an additional 1,588,579 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in Pitney Bowes during the 1st quarter valued at about $16,403,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Pitney Bowes during the 1st quarter worth about $12,950,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its position in shares of Pitney Bowes by 60.2% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,630,801 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,808,000 after buying an additional 988,653 shares in the last quarter. 67.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on PBI. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $15.20 price target on shares of Pitney Bowes in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Pitney Bowes from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Bank of America raised Pitney Bowes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $9.50 to $16.50 in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Zacks Research raised Pitney Bowes from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Citizens Jmp increased their target price on Pitney Bowes from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pitney Bowes currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $16.43.

Pitney Bowes Stock Up 4.4%

Shares of NYSE:PBI traded up $0.78 during trading on Friday, hitting $18.48. 496,886 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,886,130. The business’s fifty day moving average is $16.51 and its 200-day moving average is $12.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.88, a PEG ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.62. Pitney Bowes has a one year low of $8.95 and a one year high of $18.34.

Pitney Bowes (NYSE:PBI) last announced 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. Pitney Bowes had a negative return on equity of 33.41% and a net margin of 8.92%.The business had revenue of $477.41 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $471.83 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.33 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Pitney Bowes will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

Pitney Bowes Cuts Dividend

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

About Pitney Bowes

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.