Forensic Analysis · Computer Hardware · as of Nov 8, 2026
Pitney Bowes Inc /De/ (PBI)
A forensic read on Pitney Bowes Inc /De/ built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
-6.6%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Pitney Bowes Inc /De/ earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by shareholder returns.
What the filings flag
135% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $429M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 135% of free cash flow. That is $112M (35%) more than free cash flow covered, and more than operating cash flow as well. The balance sheet covered it: cash, short-term investments and long-term marketable securities fell $176M and total debt rose $73M over FY2025. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $14M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 140%.
10.9%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 10.9% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from 2.4%. After-tax operating profit was $45M in FY2023 and $145M in FY2025. The capital base behind it came down -27% across FY2023–FY2025, from $1.8B to $1.3B, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. $175M of the $1.3B base at FY2025 is short-term investments and long-term marketable securities (13.1%) — securities held beside cash, which the base keeps because only cash is subtracted from it; they earn the balance sheet's yield, which is not in the operating profit above, so this rate understates what the operating capital earns. FY2023's operating profit carried a $124M asset write-down, a $124M goodwill write-off and a $52M restructuring charge that took about 12.9 points off that year's return, and FY2025's carried a $58M restructuring charge and a $268,000 asset write-down that took about 3.3 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges add about 9.6 points to the +8.5-point change across FY2023–FY2025. FY2024's operating profit carried a $77M restructuring charge and a $10M asset write-down that alone took about 4.4 points off that year's return; FY2024 sits between the two ends of FY2023–FY2025, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
$124M
FY2023
Goodwill impairments.Took $124M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2023 ($124M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.89B
Revenue Growth YoY-6.6%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-4.6%
Net Margin7.6%
Free Cash Flow$317.0M
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Pitney Bowes Inc /De/'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?