Voleon Capital Management LP Acquires Shares of 159,086 Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI)

Voleon Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 159,086 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,152,000.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Pitney Bowes by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,162,512 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $153,217,000 after acquiring an additional 1,299,716 shares during the last quarter. Hestia Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Pitney Bowes in the fourth quarter valued at $114,326,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Pitney Bowes by 47.7% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,814,811 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $13,139,000 after purchasing an additional 586,249 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Pitney Bowes by 182.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 967,384 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,897,000 after purchasing an additional 624,878 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its position in Pitney Bowes by 33.6% during the fourth quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 880,300 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,373,000 after purchasing an additional 221,300 shares during the last quarter. 67.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Pitney Bowes from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 31st.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Pitney Bowes news, Director Kurt James Wolf sold 481,199 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.77, for a total transaction of $5,182,513.23. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 584,636 shares in the company, valued at $6,296,529.72. The trade was a 45.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP James Arthur Fairweather sold 130,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.83, for a total value of $1,407,900.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 176,145 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,907,650.35. This represents a 42.46 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,941,529 shares of company stock valued at $19,517,109. Company insiders own 9.00% of the company’s stock.

Pitney Bowes Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PBI opened at $8.69 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.59 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.76, a PEG ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.89. Pitney Bowes Inc. has a 1-year low of $4.14 and a 1-year high of $11.01. The business’s 50 day moving average is $9.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $8.30.

Pitney Bowes (NYSE:PBI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The technology company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.16. Pitney Bowes had a negative return on equity of 20.95% and a negative net margin of 7.71%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Pitney Bowes Inc. will post 1.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pitney Bowes Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a $0.06 dividend. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.76%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This is a positive change from Pitney Bowes’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.05. Pitney Bowes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -21.43%.

About Pitney Bowes

Pitney Bowes Inc, a shipping and mailing company, provides technology, logistics, and financial services to small and medium-sized businesses, large enterprises, retailers, and government clients in the United States and internationally. It operates through Global Ecommerce, Presort Services, and SendTech Solutions segments.