Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) Upgraded by Wall Street Zen to “Buy” Rating

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Saturday.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on MSI. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Motorola Solutions in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. They set a “buy” rating and a $540.00 price objective for the company. Argus upgraded Motorola Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $499.00 price target (up from $443.00) on shares of Motorola Solutions in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Motorola Solutions from $515.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Motorola Solutions from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Motorola Solutions has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $502.50.

Motorola Solutions Stock Down 0.7%

NYSE:MSI opened at $441.44 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $453.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $418.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $73.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.60, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.47. Motorola Solutions has a 1-year low of $359.36 and a 1-year high of $492.22.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) last posted 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 business 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $4.04 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Motorola Solutions will post 13.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Motorola Solutions Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 20th were given a $1.21 dividend. This represents a $4.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 20th. Motorola Solutions’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.93%.

Insider Transactions at Motorola Solutions

In related news, CEO Cynthia Yazdi sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $471.01, for a total transaction 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 $4,488,254.29. This represents a 42.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kenneth D. Denman sold 434 shares of the 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 directly owned 7,153 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,362,768.36. This trade represents a 5.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 129,069 shares of company stock worth $60,779,964. Insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cidel Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions by 11.3% in the first quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. now owns 43,221 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $18,757,000 after buying an additional 4,383 shares during the period. Cache Advisors LLC bought a new position in Motorola Solutions during the first quarter valued at about $139,000. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Motorola Solutions by 217.4% during the first quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Krilogy Financial LLC raised its holdings in Motorola Solutions by 78.9% in the 1st quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC now owns 907 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $403,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Signal Advisors Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Motorola Solutions by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 9,722 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,219,000 after acquiring an additional 281 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.17% of the company’s stock.

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.