Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) Short Interest Update

Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 12,290,000 shares, a growth of 16.9% from the April 30th total of 10,510,000 shares. Approximately 7.9% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 2,280,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.4 days.

Institutional Trading of Pitney Bowes

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hestia Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Pitney Bowes in the 4th quarter valued at about $114,326,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Pitney Bowes by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 768,373 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,563,000 after buying an additional 30,658 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Pitney Bowes by 43.0% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 932,635 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,752,000 after acquiring an additional 280,402 shares during the last quarter. American Assets Inc. boosted its stake in Pitney Bowes by 80.6% in the fourth quarter. American Assets Inc. now owns 130,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $941,000 after acquiring an additional 58,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Man Group plc raised its position in shares of Pitney Bowes by 76.1% during the 4th quarter. Man Group plc now owns 101,142 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $732,000 after acquiring an additional 43,694 shares during the last quarter. 67.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on PBI shares. Sidoti raised Pitney Bowes to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Pitney Bowes from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th.

Pitney Bowes Price Performance

Shares of Pitney Bowes stock opened at $10.32 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $8.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.72. Pitney Bowes has a fifty-two week low of $4.62 and a fifty-two week high of $11.01. The firm has a market cap of $1.89 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.21, a P/E/G ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.61.

Pitney Bowes (NYSE:PBI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The technology company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $493.42 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $498.99 million. Pitney Bowes had a negative return on equity of 20.95% and a negative net margin of 7.71%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.01) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Pitney Bowes will post 1.21 EPS for the current year.

Pitney Bowes Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th will be issued a $0.07 dividend. This is a boost from Pitney Bowes’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 19th. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.71%. Pitney Bowes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -30.77%.

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.