Boston, MA 10/03/2013 (wallstreetpr) – Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE: PBI) stock is going places on the market browsers over the past week. As of close of business on October 2, it was trading at $19.24 per share up 1.64% from its previous day close. The current pricing represents a new 52 week high bench mark as the previous mark was erased by the close to 6.89% increase in its value over the past week.
This strong investor sentiment was driven by key market moves the company has made over the past few weeks. The first is the company’s announcement indicating its intention to redeem bonds it had issued in 2002 for $300 million with a maturity date of August 2014. These bonds attracted interest of 4.85%. The funds required to retire these bonds are being drawn from the proceeds the company has generated by the successful completion of sale of its “management services business” to Apollo Global Management, LLC on October 1. This debt servicing is in line with the stated policy of the company to maintain a strong balance sheet with debt ratios being maintained at its optimal levels.
In a related development Pitney Bowes Inc had announced on October 1, the completion of sale process of its management services business to Apollo Global Management LLC. The sold off unit had generated $921 million in revenue for the fiscal year 2012. The deal fetched PBI $400 million. The details of the deal had been made public in July this year.
Pitney Bowes is tracked by S&P 500 index and has a market cap of $3.88 billion. It had a sales turnover of $4.84 billion during 12 months trailing period and net income of $271 million for the same time period. It had paid out dividend yield of 3.9% over the previous 12 months at a cumulative $0.75 per share.
