Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) CEO Sells $13,590,508.25 in Stock

Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) CEO Gregory Brown sold 28,435 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $477.95, for a total transaction of $13,590,508.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 90,721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,360,101.95. This trade represents a 23.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Motorola Solutions Stock Down 1.3%

NYSE MSI traded down $6.05 during trading on Friday, reaching $461.11. 880,514 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,170,048. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a 12-month low of $359.36 and a 12-month high of $492.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.47, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The firm has a market cap of $76.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $419.28 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $423.20.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $4.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.35 by $0.24. The firm had revenue of $3.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.34 billion. Motorola Solutions had a net margin of 18.44% and a return on equity of 110.75%. The company’s revenue was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $4.04 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Motorola Solutions, Inc. will post 13.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Motorola Solutions Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 20th will be given a $1.21 dividend. This represents a $4.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 20th. Motorola Solutions’s payout ratio is presently 37.93%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on MSI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Motorola Solutions from $515.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Motorola Solutions from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, December 1st. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Motorola Solutions from $495.00 to $506.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $470.00 target price on shares of Motorola Solutions in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Motorola Solutions from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $497.14.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Motorola Solutions

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Motorola Solutions during the fourth quarter worth $942,542,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions by 11,507.4% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,192,196 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $456,993,000 after acquiring an additional 1,181,925 shares in the last quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd grew its position in shares of Motorola Solutions by 95.6% during the 4th quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 1,283,065 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $491,824,000 after acquiring an additional 627,066 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions by 576.0% in the 4th quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 708,083 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $271,429,000 after purchasing an additional 603,330 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd increased its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions by 74.3% in the 4th quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 1,338,589 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $513,108,000 after purchasing an additional 570,712 shares in the last quarter. 84.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Motorola Solutions

Motorola Solutions, Inc is a provider of mission-critical communications and analytics solutions for public safety and commercial customers. The company designs, manufactures and supports a range of communications equipment and software aimed at enabling first responders, government agencies and enterprises to coordinate and operate reliably in high-pressure environments. Its offerings emphasize secure, resilient connectivity and situational awareness for organizations that require dependable voice, data and video communications.

Product lines include land mobile radio (LMR) systems and handheld and vehicle-mounted radios used by police, fire and emergency medical services; broadband push-to-talk and LTE-based solutions; command-and-control center software for incident management and records; and video security and analytics systems.