Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at Truist Financial

Truist Financial upgraded shares of Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. 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. 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 note on Monday, December 1st. Argus raised Motorola Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Barclays raised their price objective on Motorola Solutions from $495.00 to $506.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $470.00 target price on shares of Motorola Solutions in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Two research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $502.50.

Motorola Solutions Price Performance

NYSE MSI opened at $433.78 on Monday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $71.86 billion, a PE ratio of 34.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.96. Motorola Solutions has a 12-month low of $359.36 and a 12-month high of $492.22. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $444.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $420.61.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) last announced 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 for 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%. Motorola Solutions’s quarterly revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $4.04 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Motorola Solutions will post 13.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Motorola Solutions Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 20th will be given a dividend of $1.21 per share. 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 payout ratio is currently 37.93%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Motorola Solutions

In related news, CEO Gregory Q. Brown sold 28,435 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $477.95, for a total transaction of $13,590,508.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 90,721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,360,101.95. The trade was a 23.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Cynthia Yazdi sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.01, for a total value of $3,297,070.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 129,069 shares of company stock worth $60,779,964 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.44% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Covea Finance grew its position in Motorola Solutions by 5.9% during the third quarter. Covea Finance now owns 111,219 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $50,859,000 after buying an additional 6,153 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in Motorola Solutions by 20.3% in the 3rd 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. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Motorola Solutions by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 9,386,519 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $4,292,310,000 after acquiring an additional 490,354 shares during the period. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co lifted its position in shares of Motorola Solutions by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 29,701 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $13,582,000 after acquiring an additional 2,300 shares during the period. Finally, Barden Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Motorola Solutions during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,462,000. 84.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.