Legal & General Group Plc Acquires 9,664 Shares of Motorola Solutions, Inc. $MSI

Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) by 0.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,274,880 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,664 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.77% of Motorola Solutions worth $582,990,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MSI. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise boosted its position in Motorola Solutions by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 7,473 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,418,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the period. Vestcor Inc increased its position in shares of Motorola Solutions by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 45,676 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $20,887,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares during the period. Fieldview Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Motorola Solutions during the third quarter worth approximately $4,743,000. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions by 6.5% during the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,777 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,185,000 after acquiring an additional 293 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PFG Advisors raised its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions by 6.0% during the third quarter. PFG Advisors now owns 638 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. 84.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Argus raised Motorola Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $470.00 target price on shares of Motorola Solutions in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Motorola Solutions from $515.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Motorola Solutions from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $499.00 price objective (up from $443.00) on shares of Motorola Solutions in a report on Thursday, February 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $497.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Gregory Q. Brown sold 28,435 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $477.95, for a total value of $13,590,508.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 90,721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,360,101.95. This represents a 23.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kenneth D. Denman sold 434 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $470.12, for a total value of $204,032.08. Following the transaction, the director owned 7,153 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,362,768.36. This represents a 5.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 129,069 shares of company stock valued at $60,779,964 in the last three months. 1.44% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Motorola Solutions Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSI opened at $463.47 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $76.78 billion, a PE ratio of 36.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.96. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a twelve month low of $359.36 and a twelve month high of $492.22. The company’s 50 day moving average is $424.16 and its 200 day moving average is $422.64. 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 (NYSE:MSI) last issued its earnings results 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. Motorola Solutions had a return on equity of 110.75% and a net margin of 18.44%.The firm had revenue of $3.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.34 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $4.04 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Motorola Solutions, Inc. will post 13.55 EPS for the current year.

Motorola Solutions Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 20th. Motorola Solutions’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.93%.

Motorola Solutions 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.