Pitney Bowes (NYSE:PBI) Reaches New 1-Year High Following Analyst Upgrade

Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Friday after Citizens Jmp raised their price target on the stock from $17.00 to $19.00. Citizens Jmp currently has a market outperform rating on the stock. Pitney Bowes traded as high as $17.12 and last traded at $17.0150, with a volume of 460173 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $16.74.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on PBI. Zacks Research upgraded Pitney Bowes from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Pitney Bowes from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, April 25th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Pitney Bowes from $11.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Bank of America upgraded Pitney Bowes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $9.50 to $16.50 in a report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Pitney Bowes from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $16.43.

Insider Transactions at Pitney Bowes

In other news, CEO Kurt James Wolf sold 40,476 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.62, for a total value of $632,235.12. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 360,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,626,480.20. The trade was a 10.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Brent D. Rosenthal purchased 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 13th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $10.22 per share, for a total transaction of $40,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 9,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $91,980. This represents a 80.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 2,365,280 shares of company stock valued at $34,252,541 in the last ninety days. 6.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pitney Bowes

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PBI. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in Pitney Bowes by 39.5% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 326,865 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,612,000 after buying an additional 92,607 shares during the last quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems purchased a new stake in Pitney Bowes during the 1st quarter valued at $184,000. Amundi raised its stake in Pitney Bowes by 20.8% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 34,318 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $379,000 after buying an additional 5,898 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its stake in Pitney Bowes by 29.7% during the 1st quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 202,484 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,237,000 after buying an additional 46,371 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in Pitney Bowes by 28.1% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 75,807 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $837,000 after buying an additional 16,623 shares during the last quarter. 67.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Pitney Bowes Trading Up 1.5%

The firm has a market capitalization of $2.30 billion, a PE ratio of 16.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.63. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $14.08 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $11.64.

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

Pitney Bowes Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 5th. Investors of record on Monday, May 18th will be issued a $0.01 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 18th. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Pitney Bowes’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.