Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Sells 3,361 Shares of Motorola Solutions, Inc. $MSI

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI cut its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) by 38.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,401 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 3,361 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Motorola Solutions were worth $2,470,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Motorola Solutions during the second quarter valued at $872,307,000. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new stake in shares of Motorola Solutions during the 2nd quarter valued at about $230,743,000. Voya Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Motorola Solutions by 116.5% during the 3rd quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 841,463 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $384,793,000 after purchasing an additional 452,822 shares during the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions by 54.5% in the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 1,195,796 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $502,784,000 after purchasing an additional 422,039 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,885,593 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $9,202,016,000 after purchasing an additional 384,479 shares during the period. 84.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Motorola Solutions Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MSI opened at $390.44 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $65.03 billion, a PE ratio of 31.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.00. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a 1 year low of $359.36 and a 1 year high of $492.22. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $377.07 and a 200-day moving average price of $423.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.59, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 0.86.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) last issued its earnings results on Friday, October 31st. The communications equipment provider reported $4.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.85 by $0.21. Motorola Solutions had a net margin of 18.71% and a return on equity of 118.48%. The company had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.99 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.74 EPS. Motorola Solutions’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Motorola Solutions, Inc. will post 13.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Motorola Solutions Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 15th will be given a dividend of $1.21 per share. This is an increase from Motorola Solutions’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.01. This represents a $4.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 15th. Motorola Solutions’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.84%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on MSI. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Motorola Solutions in a report on Monday, December 29th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Motorola Solutions from $509.00 to $495.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Northcoast Research upgraded Motorola Solutions from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Finally, Piper Sandler upgraded Motorola Solutions from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $465.00 to $443.00 in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $491.86.

Motorola Solutions Company 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.