Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) have been assigned an average rating of “Buy” from the eleven research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $497.1429.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays raised their price target on Motorola Solutions from $495.00 to $506.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $499.00 price objective (up from $443.00) on shares of Motorola Solutions in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Motorola Solutions from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $470.00 target price on shares of Motorola Solutions in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Northcoast Research upgraded shares of 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.

Motorola Solutions Stock Performance

MSI stock opened at $452.67 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $437.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $422.43. Motorola Solutions has a fifty-two week low of $359.36 and a fifty-two week 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 stock has a market capitalization of $74.99 billion, a PE ratio of 35.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.96.

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

Motorola Solutions Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 20th will be paid a $1.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 20th. This represents a $4.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. Motorola Solutions’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.93%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Motorola Solutions news, Director Kenneth D. Denman sold 434 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $470.12, for a total transaction of $204,032.08. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 7,153 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,362,768.36. The trade was a 5.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Cynthia Yazdi sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $471.01, for a total value of $3,297,070.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,529 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,488,254.29. This trade represents a 42.35% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 129,069 shares of company stock valued at $60,779,964. Company insiders own 1.44% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Motorola Solutions

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Orion Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Motorola Solutions during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. United Community Bank raised its position in shares of Motorola Solutions by 81.3% in the 3rd quarter. United Community Bank now owns 58 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the period. Gunpowder Capital Management LLC dba Oliver Wealth Management bought a new position in Motorola Solutions during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Strategic Advocates LLC acquired a new position in Motorola Solutions during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Motorola Solutions during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Institutional investors own 84.17% of the company’s stock.

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.