Insider Selling: Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) CEO Sells 28,435 Shares of Stock

Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) CEO Gregory Brown sold 28,435 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $477.95, for a total value of $13,590,508.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 90,721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,360,101.95. This trade represents a 23.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Motorola Solutions Price Performance

Shares of MSI stock traded down $6.05 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $461.11. 880,514 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,170,048. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $359.36 and a fifty-two week high of $492.22. The firm has a market cap of $76.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.14, a P/E/G ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.47. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $419.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $423.20.

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

Motorola Solutions Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Institutional Trading of Motorola Solutions

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Covea Finance grew its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions by 5.9% in the third quarter. Covea Finance now owns 111,219 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $50,859,000 after acquiring an additional 6,153 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions by 20.3% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,345,492 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $615,280,000 after acquiring an additional 227,062 shares in the last quarter. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co boosted its holdings in Motorola Solutions by 8.4% in the third quarter. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 29,701 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $13,582,000 after purchasing an additional 2,300 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Motorola Solutions by 180.3% during the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 19,899 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $9,100,000 after purchasing an additional 12,799 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Motorola Solutions by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,386,899 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,839,569,000 after purchasing an additional 51,474 shares during the period. 84.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Motorola Solutions Company Profile

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.