Traders Purchase Large Volume of Pitney Bowes Call Options (NYSE:PBI)

Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) was the target of unusually large options trading on Monday. Traders purchased 26,021 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 418% compared to the typical daily volume of 5,021 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in shares of Pitney Bowes by 10.0% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 216,002 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $935,000 after purchasing an additional 19,690 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Pitney Bowes by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 34,900 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $151,000 after purchasing an additional 2,440 shares in the last quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pitney Bowes in the 1st quarter worth $57,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pitney Bowes in the 1st quarter worth $197,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Pitney Bowes by 21.6% in the 1st quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 66,247 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $287,000 after purchasing an additional 11,753 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com lowered Pitney Bowes from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st.

Pitney Bowes Stock Performance

Shares of PBI stock opened at $7.99 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.43 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.97. Pitney Bowes has a fifty-two week low of $3.68 and a fifty-two week high of $8.80. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $7.03 and its 200-day moving average price is $6.26.

Pitney Bowes (NYSE:PBI) last released its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The technology company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $499.46 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $467.80 million. Pitney Bowes had a negative return on equity of 13.85% and a negative net margin of 13.02%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Pitney Bowes will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Pitney Bowes Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.05 per share. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. Pitney Bowes’s payout ratio is -9.17%.

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.