Analysts Set Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) Target Price at $497.14

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

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on MSI shares. 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. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $499.00 target price (up from $443.00) on shares of Motorola Solutions in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Northcoast Research raised shares of Motorola Solutions from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Argus upgraded Motorola Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Motorola Solutions from $495.00 to $506.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Cynthia Yazdi sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owned 9,529 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,488,254.29. This represents a 42.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kenneth D. Denman sold 434 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $470.12, for a total transaction of $204,032.08. Following the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 129,069 shares of company stock valued at $60,779,964. Insiders own 1.44% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Motorola Solutions

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Covea Finance boosted its position in Motorola Solutions by 5.9% during the 3rd 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 during the period. Swedbank AB boosted its position in shares of Motorola Solutions by 20.3% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,345,492 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $615,280,000 after purchasing an additional 227,062 shares in the last quarter. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co lifted its stake in Motorola Solutions by 8.4% during 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 last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Motorola Solutions by 180.3% during the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 19,899 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $9,100,000 after buying an additional 12,799 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its position in Motorola Solutions by 5.5% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 9,386,519 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $4,292,310,000 after buying an additional 490,354 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.17% of the company’s stock.

Motorola Solutions Stock Down 1.4%

MSI opened at $452.67 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $74.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.48, a PEG ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.96. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $437.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $423.18. Motorola Solutions has a 52 week low of $359.36 and a 52 week high of $492.22. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.47.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $4.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.35 by $0.24. The firm had revenue of $3.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $4.04 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Motorola Solutions will post 13.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Motorola Solutions Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 20th. This represents a $4.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. Motorola Solutions’s dividend payout ratio is 37.93%.

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.