Reviewing Pitney Bowes (PBI) & The Competition

Pitney Bowes (NYSE:PBI) is one of 354 public companies in the “Commercial Services & Supplies” industry, but how does it contrast to its rivals? We will compare Pitney Bowes to related businesses based on the strength of its valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, dividends, risk and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Pitney Bowes and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pitney Bowes	0	4	3	0	2.43
Pitney Bowes Competitors	1912	6254	9045	665	2.47

Pitney Bowes currently has a consensus target price of $18.45, indicating a potential upside of 16.96%. As a group, “Commercial Services & Supplies” companies have a potential upside of 9.93%. Given Pitney Bowes’ higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Pitney Bowes is more favorable than its rivals.

Volatility and Risk

Pitney Bowes has a beta of 1.74, suggesting that its stock price is 74% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pitney Bowes’ rivals have a beta of 2.52, suggesting that their average stock price is 152% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Pitney Bowes pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Pitney Bowes pays out 31.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Commercial Services & Supplies” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.5% and pay out 67.4% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Pitney Bowes has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Pitney Bowes is clearly a better dividend stock than its rivals, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Pitney Bowes and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pitney Bowes	10.10%	-30.45%	8.39%
Pitney Bowes Competitors	-49.89%	-119.08%	-1.28%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

67.9% of Pitney Bowes shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.5% of shares of all “Commercial Services & Supplies” companies are owned by institutional investors. 6.5% of Pitney Bowes shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.4% of shares of all “Commercial Services & Supplies” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Pitney Bowes and its rivals top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pitney Bowes	$1.86 billion	$144.70 million	12.23
Pitney Bowes Competitors	$2.48 billion	$140.58 million	4.12

Pitney Bowes’ rivals have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Pitney Bowes. Pitney Bowes is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Pitney Bowes beats its rivals on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

About Pitney Bowes

Pitney Bowes is a mailing and shipping technology company that provides products and services to businesses, government organizations and other customers. Its offerings include postage meters, mailing and shipping equipment, package and mail management software, and related support services. The company also provides shipping and mailing services, including solutions that help businesses prepare, process and send mail and parcels. Its products are designed to help customers manage mailing operations, compare shipping options and track shipments.