William Blair Investment Management LLC Makes New Investment in Motorola Solutions, Inc. $MSI

William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 2,905 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,328,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Orion Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Motorola Solutions in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. United Community Bank lifted its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions by 81.3% during the 3rd quarter. United Community Bank now owns 58 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Motorola Solutions during the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. Field & Main Bank purchased a new position in Motorola Solutions during the 3rd quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Salomon & Ludwin LLC bought a new position in Motorola Solutions in the 3rd quarter valued at $38,000. 84.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $470.00 target price on shares of Motorola Solutions in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Motorola Solutions from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Motorola Solutions from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Motorola Solutions from $495.00 to $506.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $499.00 price target (up from $443.00) on shares of Motorola Solutions in a report on Thursday, February 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $497.14.

Motorola Solutions Price Performance

NYSE MSI opened at $480.31 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.47, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.04. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $415.43 and its 200-day moving average price is $422.50. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a 52-week low of $359.36 and a 52-week high of $492.22. The company has a market cap of $79.57 billion, a PE ratio of 37.64, a P/E/G ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.96.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $4.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.35 by $0.24. The company 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%. Motorola Solutions’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $4.04 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Motorola Solutions, Inc. will post 13.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Motorola Solutions Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 20th will be paid a dividend of $1.21 per share. This represents a $4.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 20th. Motorola Solutions’s dividend payout ratio is 37.93%.

Insider Activity at Motorola Solutions

In other Motorola Solutions news, CEO Cynthia Yazdi sold 7,000 shares of Motorola Solutions 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 owned 9,529 shares in the company, valued at $4,488,254.29. The trade was a 42.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Gregory Q. Brown sold 21,600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.53, for a total transaction of $10,141,848.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 21,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,132,457.40. The trade was a 50.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 100,634 shares of company stock valued at $47,189,456 over the last quarter. 1.44% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.