Pitney Bowes Inc, (PBI) is set to report fourth-quarter and full-year 2013 results on Jan 30, 2014. Last quarter, it posted a 22.5% positive surprise. Let’s see how things are shaping up for this announcement.
Growth Factors This Past Quarter
Pitney Bowes’ Digital Commerce Solutions segment along with its International Mailing business has been doing impressively well. Furthermore, the company has undertaken a strategic transformation program designed to create long-term flexibility to invest in future growth. It continues to realize the benefits of its ongoing initiatives to improve the infrastructure, productivity and profitability of the company. However, the competitive markets and a persistently declining postal services business might prove to be a headwind for the company.
Earnings Whispers?
Our proven model does not conclusively show that Pitney Bowes is likely to beat earnings this quarter. That is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank of #1, 2 or 3 for this to happen. That is not the case here as you will see below.
Zero Zacks ESP: That is because both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate stand at 44 cents. Hence, the difference is 0.00%.
Zacks Rank #3: Pitney Bowes’ Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) when combined with a zero ESP makes surprise prediction difficult. We caution against stocks with Zacks Ranks #4 and 5 (Sell-rated stocks) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.
Other Stocks to Consider
Here are some other companies you may want to consider as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:
Nokia Corp. (NOK), with Earnings ESP of +33.33% and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Gorman-Rupp Co. (GRC) with Earnings ESP of +4.00% and a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Embraer SA. (ERJ) with Earnings ESP of +14.4% and a Zacks Rank #2(Buy).