Insider Selling: Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) CEO Sells $21,006,400.00 in Stock

Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) CEO Gregory Brown sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $525.16, for a total value of $21,006,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 66,769 shares in the company, valued at $35,064,408.04. This represents a 37.46% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Motorola Solutions Stock Down 0.8%

NYSE:MSI traded down $4.03 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $531.19. The company had a trading volume of 778,443 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,065,343. The firm has a market capitalization of $87.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.73, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.86. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $470.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $443.85. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a 12-month low of $359.36 and a 12-month high of $548.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.03.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $4.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.42 by $0.27. The company had revenue of $3.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.26 billion. Motorola Solutions had a return on equity of 94.49% and a net margin of 16.54%. Motorola Solutions’s revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $4.06 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Motorola Solutions, Inc. will post 15.90 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Motorola Solutions Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $1.21 per share. This represents a $4.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 16th. Motorola Solutions’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.94%.

Institutional Trading of Motorola Solutions

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSI. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Motorola Solutions by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,849,952 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,269,332,000 after buying an additional 323,725 shares during the last quarter. Aristotle Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Motorola Solutions during the 1st quarter worth $983,432,000. Amundi raised its stake in Motorola Solutions by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 1,600,491 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $694,565,000 after acquiring an additional 30,264 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in Motorola Solutions by 34.3% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,381,506 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $599,532,000 after acquiring an additional 352,679 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in Motorola Solutions by 5.0% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,244,326 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $539,958,000 after acquiring an additional 59,294 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on MSI shares. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Motorola Solutions from $550.00 to $555.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 5th. Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Motorola Solutions in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $476.00 price objective (up from $470.00) on shares of Motorola Solutions in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Motorola Solutions from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Motorola Solutions from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $545.70.

Motorola Solutions Company Profile

Motorola Solutions, Inc. provides communications, software, video security and related services for public safety agencies and commercial and industrial organizations. Its products include two-way radios and land mobile radio systems, dispatch consoles, command center software, video surveillance systems and access control technology. The company’s offerings are designed to help customers coordinate communications, manage incidents and support security operations. Motorola Solutions also provides services such as system integration, maintenance and technical support.