Filing Flows › Companies › Pitney Bowes › Analysis traps
Pitney Bowes (PBI): analysis traps
Where its figures could mislead a reader, and what to check before taking them at face value · Data: Q3 2026, to Sep 30, 2026, filed Oct 29, 2026; rules v1.1
Pitney Bowes (PBI): 0 rules of 10 triggered on the filings to Sep 30, 2026; 3 with insufficient data; 2 not applicable. Each is a question to verify, with the normal explanation that would produce the same figures.
Check these first
No rule is triggered on the latest filings, and none is marked to review.
Every rule
A01 FCF growth = the business improved Not triggered confidence medium
Free cash flow rose $160M to $317M; working capital and lower capex explain 4% of it, so most of the gain is in operating cash flow itself.
The figures and how they are read
| Fiscal year before | FY2024 |
| Fiscal year | FY2025 |
| Operating cash flow, year before | $229M |
| Operating cash flow | $383M |
| Capex, year before | $72M |
| Capex | $66M |
| Free cash flow, year before | $157M |
| Free cash flow | $317M |
| Change in FCF | $160M |
| Change in capex | −$6M |
| Working capital: change in its cash contribution | −$134M |
| Of which: capex cut | $6M |
| Of which: working capital released | 0.00 |
| Share of the increase that need not repeat | +3.8% |
| Operating cash flow before working capital: change | 287783000.00 |
FCF = operating cash flow − cash capex; ΔFCF = ΔOCF − ΔCapEx; the working-capital part is the change in the cash-bridge items (receivables, inventory, payables, accruals), with the sign of the cash flow statement
Source: FY2025 (cash flow statement, fiscal year) · FY2024 (cash flow statement, fiscal year before)
A07 Stock compensation added back = no economic cost Not triggered confidence high
Stock compensation is 0.7% of revenue: small enough that adding it back changes little.
The figures and how they are read
| Fiscal year | FY2025 |
| Stock compensation | $14M |
| Revenue | $1.9B |
| SBC / revenue | +0.8% |
| Buybacks | $378M |
| Buybacks / SBC | 26.7 |
| Diluted shares, year before | 182.5M shares |
| Diluted shares | 173.0M shares |
| Diluted shares: change | -5.2% |
SBC / revenue from the cash flow statement's add-back; the diluted weighted share count year over year; buybacks from the financing section
Source: FY2025 (stock compensation, buybacks and the diluted share count, fiscal year)
B02 Receivables growing = future cash is certain Not triggered confidence medium
Receivables grew 0% against revenue -1% in Q3 2026; DSO 31 against a median of 31: collections are keeping pace with sales.
The figures and how they are read
| Quarter | Q3 2026 |
| Revenue, year over year | -0.8% |
| Receivables, year over year | +0.3% |
| Quarter before | Q2 2026 |
| Revenue y/y, quarter before | -2.2% |
| Receivables y/y, quarter before | -4.8% |
| Days sales outstanding | 31.3 |
| DSO, median of eight quarters | 31.1 |
| Receivables | $162M |
| Revenue | $456M |
receivables and revenue against the same quarter a year earlier; DSO = receivables / quarterly revenue × days, against the median of the eight quarters before
Source: Q3 2026 (receivables and revenue) · Q3 2025 (the same quarter a year earlier)
B08 Adjusted profit = economic profit Insufficient data
no reconciliation table read from the releases yet and fewer than three quarters with both an adjusted and a GAAP EPS
C02 Low net debt = no refinancing risk Not triggered confidence medium
$17M comes due within a year, 45.8× covered by cash and investments of $281M plus $505M of free cash flow.
The figures and how they are read
| Cash and investments | $281M |
| Debt | $1.9B |
| Net debt | $1.6B |
| Due within a year | $17M |
| Read from | the debt maturity table |
| Free cash flow, twelve months | $505M |
| Cash plus free cash flow | $786M |
| Coverage of what is due | 45.8 |
| Due in the second year | $368M |
| Balance sheet date | 2026-09-30 |
due within a year from the maturity table (else the current portion of debt), against cash and investments plus free cash flow over the last twelve months (zero if negative); no credit lines assumed
Source: FY2025 (debt maturities, cash and investments)
D03 EPS growth = profit growth Insufficient data
no quarter with EPS, net income and diluted shares for both this year and last
E02 Low P/E at a cyclical peak = undervalued Not triggered confidence medium
Net income of $188M is not at a cyclical high against the last eight years (median $37M, best $224M): the P/E of 11.6× is on a normal year.
The figures and how they are read
| market value | $2.2B |
| net income ttm | $188M |
| pe ttm | 11.60 |
| net income median fy | $37M |
| pe mid cycle | 59.20 |
| net income peak fy | $224M |
| years | FY2018 / 224.0; FY2019 / 195.0; FY2020 / -182.0; FY2021 / -1.0; FY2022 / 37.0; FY2023 / -386.0; FY2024 / -204.0; FY2025 / 145.0 |
| down years in window | 3 |
P/E on the trailing twelve months' net income against the P/E on the median net income of the last eight fiscal years (a mid-cycle stand-in); 'at a peak' = this year's profit at or above 90% of the best year and at least 1.3× the median
Source: Q3 2026 (net income, trailing twelve months)
E07 A precise DCF value = the true value Insufficient data
no DCF in the valuation research for this company
J06 A bank's low P/E and high profit = safe Not applicable
not a bank
J08 A REIT's low net income = the dividend is unsafe Not applicable
not a REIT
What the statuses mean
Triggered: the filings show the pattern; read the normal explanations and the missing evidence before concluding anything. To review: one quarter or a weak signal; a reader's judgement, not a pattern. Not triggered: the pattern is absent on these figures. Insufficient data: the filings read so far do not hold what the rule needs; this is not a clean bill. Not applicable: the rule is not meant for this kind of company (a bank's working capital, a loss-making quarter's EPS growth). Out of date: the latest filing is more than fifteen months old.
Severity is what the pattern could mean for cash, value or solvency; confidence is how reliable the inputs and the reading are. The two are kept apart.
Record a view
A reader's judgement, grounds, what would change it and the next review; kept in the browser (needs JavaScript).
Every rule and the companies it triggers on → Pitney Bowes: cash flow →
Each rule reads the company's own filings by a fixed formula and says what would explain the same figures innocently. A triggered rule is a question to verify, not a finding of manipulation, and not a view on the stock. Missing data is shown as missing, never as clear. Not investment advice.