D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. Sells 461,977 Shares of Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI)

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. lowered its position in Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) by 32.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 940,773 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 461,977 shares during the quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. owned 0.52% of Pitney Bowes worth $6,811,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of PBI. James J. Burns & Company LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pitney Bowes by 9.7% in the 4th quarter. James J. Burns & Company LLC now owns 18,587 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $135,000 after buying an additional 1,637 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Pitney Bowes by 11.6% in the 4th quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 18,000 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $130,000 after buying an additional 1,878 shares in the last quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. raised its holdings in shares of Pitney Bowes by 10.8% in the 4th quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 20,677 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $150,000 after buying an additional 2,020 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Pitney Bowes by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 102,197 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $740,000 after buying an additional 2,711 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pitney Bowes by 130.3% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 5,078 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 2,873 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.88% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PBI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Sidoti raised Pitney Bowes to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. StockNews.com cut Pitney Bowes from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday.

Insider Activity at Pitney Bowes

In other news, EVP James Arthur Fairweather sold 130,000 shares of Pitney Bowes stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.83, for a total value of $1,407,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 176,145 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,907,650.35. This trade represents a 42.46% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kurt James Wolf sold 481,199 shares of Pitney Bowes stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.77, for a total value of $5,182,513.23. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 584,636 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,296,529.72. This trade represents a 45.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 613,244 shares of company stock valued at $6,607,591 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 9.00% of the company’s stock.

Pitney Bowes Price Performance

PBI stock opened at $9.55 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $8.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $8.46. Pitney Bowes Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $4.62 and a fifty-two week high of $11.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.53, a P/E/G ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.47.

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

Pitney Bowes Increases Dividend

The firm 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 dividend of $0.07 per share. This represents a $0.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.93%. This is a boost from Pitney Bowes’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 19th. 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.