Pitney Bowes Inc. PBI reported first-quarter 2021 adjusted earnings of 7 cents per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 40% and increased 40% year over year. Following the strong top-line performance, shares of Pitney Bowes are up 1.5% in the premarket trading on May 3.Notably, total revenues rose 15% year over year to $915 million. Adjusting for foreign currency exchange, revenues increased 14% year over year to $906.4 million. Management is optimistic on investments in shipping starting to pay off. Notably, shipping-related revenues contributed 49% to total revenues in the reported quarter.Pitney Bowes Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise Pitney Bowes Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Pitney Bowes Inc. Quote Quarter in DetailGlobal Ecommerce revenues surged 41% (up 40% after adjusting for currency) to $413 million, benefitting from strong growth across Domestic Parcel, Digital Delivery and Cross Border Services volumes.Presort Services of $143 million were up 2% (up 2% after adjusting for currency) on a year-over-year basis driven by growth in Marketing Mail.Sending Technology Solutions were down 1% year over year (down 3% after adjusting for currency) to $359 million. Sluggishness in support services, supplies and financing limited the upside.SendTech shipping-related revenues were $30 million, growing at a low double-digit rate. Further, Pitney Bowes stated that the number of labels printed through its shipping offerings increased more than 40%, while paid subscriptions grew nearly 80%.Adjusted EBITDA DetailsIn the first quarter, adjusted EBITDA declined 0.6% from the year-ago quarter’s figure to $89.3 million.Segment EBITDA increased 10% from the year-ago quarter’s figure to $140.4 million. Segment EBIT jumped 15% from the year-ago quarter’s figure to $107.2 million.Balance Sheet & Cash FlowAs of Mar 31, 2021, cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments were $696.93 million compared with $940 million as of Dec 31, 2020.As of Mar 31, 2021, long-term debt (including current portion) was $2.44 billion compared with $2.56 billion as of Dec 31, 2020. The company also repaid debt worth $126 million in the quarter under review.Cash flow generated was $65.9 million compared with $110.8 million of net cash generated in operations in the previous quarter. Free cash outflow was $1.24 million compared with free cash flow of $96.8 million in the prior quarter.The company incurred expenses of $4 million under restructuring payments and capital expenditures worth $43 million in the reported quarter. Also, the company paid out $9 million in dividends in the quarter under review.GuidanceFor 2021, the company expects revenues to rally more than 2020 in the low-to-mid single digit range, marking it as the fifth consecutive year of growth (on constant currency basis). The company also expects adjusted earnings per share to grow on a year-over-year basis owing to strong performance of Global Ecommerce.However, the company anticipates lower free cash flow due to specific items that helped 2020 performance and “are not expected to continue at the same level in 2021.”Zacks Rank & Stocks to ConsiderCurrently, Pitney Bowes carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).Some better-ranked stocks in the broader technology sector worth consideration are Qorvo QRVO, Vishay Intertechnology VSH and Microchip MCHP. All the stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.Vishay is set to report its quarterly results on May 4. Qorvo and Microchip are scheduled to report their quarterly results on May 5 and May 6, respectively.Long-term earnings growth rate of Qorvo, Vishay Intertechnology and Microchip is pegged at 14%, 20.3% and 15.5%, respectively.Breakout Biotech Stocks with Triple-Digit Profit PotentialThe biotech sector is projected to surge beyond $775 billion by 2024 as scientists develop treatments for thousands of diseases. They’re also finding ways to edit the human genome to literally erase our vulnerability to these diseases.Zacks has just released Century of Biology: 7 Biotech Stocks to Buy Right Now to help investors profit from 7 stocks poised for outperformance. Our recent biotech recommendations have produced gains of +50%, +83% and +164% in as little as 2 months. The stocks in this report could perform even better.See these 7 breakthrough stocks now>>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Pitney Bowes Inc. (PBI): Free Stock Analysis Report Microchip Technology Incorporated (MCHP): Free Stock Analysis Report Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (VSH): Free Stock Analysis Report Qorvo, Inc. (QRVO): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research