Sky Investment Group LLC Purchases 2,302 Shares of Motorola Solutions, Inc. $MSI

Sky Investment Group LLC increased its position in Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) by 213.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,381 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,302 shares during the quarter. Sky Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Motorola Solutions were worth $1,296,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MSI. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Motorola Solutions by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,171,959 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,139,015,000 after acquiring an additional 286,366 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised 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 purchasing an additional 490,354 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Motorola Solutions by 1.3% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,681,622 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,237,985,000 after purchasing an additional 101,408 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. lifted its stake in Motorola Solutions by 0.9% during the third quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 3,433,482 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,570,096,000 after purchasing an additional 31,744 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Motorola Solutions during the second quarter valued at approximately $872,307,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.17% of the company’s stock.

Motorola Solutions Trading Down 2.6%

MSI stock opened at $438.44 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.47, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $72.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $443.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $421.82. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $359.36 and a fifty-two week high of $492.22.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) last announced its 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 analysts’ expectations of $3.34 billion. Motorola Solutions had a return on equity of 110.75% and a net margin of 18.44%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $4.04 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Motorola Solutions, Inc. will post 13.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Motorola Solutions Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 20th will be given a $1.21 dividend. This represents a $4.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 20th. Motorola Solutions’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.93%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on MSI shares. Northcoast Research upgraded Motorola Solutions from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Motorola Solutions from $515.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Argus upgraded Motorola Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Barclays increased their price objective on Motorola Solutions from $495.00 to $506.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $470.00 price objective on shares of Motorola Solutions in a report on Thursday, February 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Motorola Solutions currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $497.14.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Gregory Q. Brown sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $468.09, for a total transaction of $23,404,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 47,167 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,078,401.03. The trade was a 51.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Cynthia Yazdi sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 approximately $4,488,254.29. The trade was a 42.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 129,069 shares of company stock valued at $60,779,964 over the last 90 days. 1.44% of the stock is owned by company 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.