Wedbush Securities Inc. Acquires Shares of 119,248 Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI)

Wedbush Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 119,248 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $863,000. Wedbush Securities Inc. owned approximately 0.07% of Pitney Bowes at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of PBI. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Pitney Bowes during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Pitney Bowes by 130.3% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 5,078 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 2,873 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP increased its position in shares of Pitney Bowes by 889.2% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 8,319 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 7,478 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Pitney Bowes by 36.7% in the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 14,283 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $103,000 after acquiring an additional 3,837 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp purchased a new position in Pitney Bowes in the fourth quarter valued at about $110,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Insider Activity at Pitney Bowes

In other Pitney Bowes news, Director Kurt James Wolf sold 1,250,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.66, for a total transaction of $12,075,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 622,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,010,935. This represents a 66.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Deborah Pfeiffer sold 35,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.02, for a total transaction of $315,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 124,124 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,119,598.48. The trade was a 22.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,974,484 shares of company stock valued at $19,815,631. Corporate insiders own 14.30% of the company’s stock.

Pitney Bowes Price Performance

PBI opened at $7.99 on Tuesday. Pitney Bowes Inc. has a 12-month low of $3.90 and a 12-month high of $11.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.46 billion, a PE ratio of -7.13, a P/E/G ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.89. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $9.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $8.16.

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

Pitney Bowes Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.00%. This is an increase from Pitney Bowes’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.05. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. Pitney Bowes’s payout ratio is -21.43%.

Pitney Bowes Company Profile

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.