Seiko Epson (OTCMKTS:SEKEY) & Pitney Bowes (NYSE:PBI) Critical Survey

Pitney Bowes (NYSE:PBI) and Seiko Epson (OTCMKTS:SEKEY) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Pitney Bowes and Seiko Epson, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pitney Bowes	0	1	0	0	2.00
Seiko Epson	0	0	0	0	0.00

Risk and Volatility

Pitney Bowes has a beta of 1.61, suggesting that its share price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Seiko Epson has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Pitney Bowes and Seiko Epson”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pitney Bowes	$2.03 billion	0.95	-$203.60 million	($0.91)	-11.59
Seiko Epson	$8.95 billion	0.53	$369.61 million	$0.55	11.45

Seiko Epson has higher revenue and earnings than Pitney Bowes. Pitney Bowes is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Seiko Epson, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

67.9% of Pitney Bowes shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.0% of Pitney Bowes shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Pitney Bowes pays an annual dividend of $0.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Seiko Epson pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Pitney Bowes pays out -30.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Seiko Epson pays out 14.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Pitney Bowes has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Pitney Bowes is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Pitney Bowes and Seiko Epson’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pitney Bowes	-7.18%	-31.61%	4.53%
Seiko Epson	4.02%	6.68%	3.77%

Summary

Pitney Bowes beats Seiko Epson on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. The Global Ecommerce segment provides domestic parcel services, cross-border solutions, and digital delivery services. The Presort Services segment offers mail sortation services, which allow clients to qualify volumes of first-class mail, marketing mail, marketing mail flats, and bound printed matter for postal work sharing discounts. The SendTech Solutions segment provides physical and digital mailing and shipping technology solutions, and other applications for sending, tracking and receiving of letters, parcels, and flats as well as financing alternatives to finance equipment and product purchases. It markets its products, solutions, and services through direct and inside sales force, global and regional partner channels, direct mailings, and digital channels. The company was formerly known as Pitney Bowes Postage Meter Company. Pitney Bowes Inc. was incorporated in 1920 and is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.

About Seiko Epson

Seiko Epson Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, sells, and provides services for products in the printing solutions, visual communications, manufacturing-related and wearables, and other businesses. It operates through three segments: Printing Solutions, Visual Communications, and Manufacturing-related and Wearables segments. The Printing Solutions segment offers home and office inkjet printers, serial impact dot matrix printers, page printers, color image scanners, dry process office papermaking systems, commercial and industrial inkjet printers, inkjet printheads, printers for use in POS systems, label printers, printer consumables, and others. The Visual Communications segment provides 3LCD projectors for business, education, the home, and event; smart glasses; and others. The Manufacturing-related and Wearables segment offers wristwatches, watch movements, and others; factory automation products, industrial robots, compact injection molders, and other production systems; and crystal units, crystal oscillators, quartz sensors, and others for consumer, automotive, and industrial equipment applications. This segment also provides CMOS LSIs and other chips primarily for consumer electronics and automotive applications; and metal powders for use as raw materials in the production of electronic components, etc., as well as value-added surface finishing in a range of industrial fields. The company also sells PCs, etc. It has operations in Japan, the Philippines, the United States, Indonesia, China, and internationally. Seiko Epson Corporation was incorporated in 1942 and is headquartered in Suwa, Japan.