First Trust Advisors LP Has $293.14 Million Position in Motorola Solutions, Inc. $MSI

First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 641,029 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 28,022 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Motorola Solutions were worth $293,136,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Motorola Solutions by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 944 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $397,000 after buying an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Motorola Solutions by 1.0% in the second quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 2,452 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,031,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Motorola Solutions by 0.3% in the second quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,115 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,833,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Rexford Capital Inc. grew its stake in Motorola Solutions by 0.6% in the third quarter. Rexford Capital Inc. now owns 3,893 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,780,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. Finally, Pinnacle Wealth Management Advisory Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Motorola Solutions by 3.7% during the second quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Management Advisory Group LLC now owns 701 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $295,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. 84.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings raised Motorola Solutions from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $499.00 price target (up from $443.00) on shares of Motorola Solutions in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Motorola Solutions from $515.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a 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 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Motorola Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $497.14.

Motorola Solutions Price Performance

MSI opened at $461.11 on Friday. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a 1 year low of $359.36 and a 1 year high of $492.22. 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 company has a market capitalization of $76.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.14, a P/E/G ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.96. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $420.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $423.19.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $4.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.35 by $0.24. Motorola Solutions had a net margin of 18.44% and a return on equity of 110.75%. The company had revenue of $3.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.34 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $4.04 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Motorola Solutions, Inc. will post 13.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Motorola Solutions Announces Dividend

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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Motorola Solutions’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.93%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Kenneth D. Denman sold 434 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $470.12, for a total transaction of $204,032.08. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,153 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,362,768.36. This trade represents a 5.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Gregory Q. Brown sold 50,000 shares of Motorola Solutions stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $468.09, for a total value of $23,404,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 47,167 shares in the company, valued at $22,078,401.03. This trade represents a 51.46% 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 129,069 shares of company stock valued at $60,779,964 in the last 90 days. 1.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.