Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI)?

Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) was in 23 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. PBI investors should pay attention to an increase in hedge fund interest in recent months. There were 21 hedge funds in our database with PBI positions at the end of the previous quarter.

According to most investors, hedge funds are seen as underperforming, outdated financial vehicles of yesteryear. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation today, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the moguls of this club, close to 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group has its hands on most of the smart money’s total asset base, and by keeping an eye on their best investments, we have identified a few investment strategies that have historically outperformed the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have trumped the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (see the details here).

Pitney Bowes (PBI)Just as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are many incentives for an executive to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, it’s important to take a glance at the key action encompassing Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI).

What have hedge funds been doing with Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI)?

At year’s end, a total of 23 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 10% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Tiger Global Management LLC had the largest position in Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI), worth close to $20 million billion, comprising 0.4% of its total 13F portfolio. On Tiger Global Management LLC’s heels is Philippe Laffont of Coatue Management, with a $13 million position; 0% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedge funds with similar optimism include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Tudor Investment Corp, managed by Paul Tudor Jones, established the largest position in Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI). Tudor Investment Corp had 1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Joe DiMenna’s ZWEIG DIMENNA PARTNERS also made a $1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new PBI investors: Bart Baum’s Ionic Capital Management, Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management, and Gregory Fraser, Rudolph Kluiber, and Tim Krochuk’s GRT Capital Partners.

Insider trading activity in Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI)

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time frame, Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the returns exhibited by Insider Monkey’s studies, retail investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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