Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Grows Stock Position in Motorola Solutions, Inc. $MSI

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) by 7.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 40,087 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,639 shares during the quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Motorola Solutions were worth $18,331,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Orion Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Motorola Solutions in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. United Community Bank increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Motorola Solutions during the third quarter worth about $33,000. Field & Main Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Motorola Solutions during the 3rd quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Salomon & Ludwin LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Motorola Solutions during the 3rd quarter worth about $38,000. 84.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Motorola Solutions from $495.00 to $506.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $499.00 target price (up from $443.00) on shares of Motorola Solutions in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $470.00 price target on shares of Motorola Solutions in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Northcoast Research upgraded 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, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Motorola Solutions from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday. 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Motorola Solutions has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $497.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Kenneth D. Denman sold 434 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the director directly owned 7,153 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,362,768.36. This represents a 5.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Cynthia Yazdi sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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. This trade represents a 42.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 100,634 shares of company stock valued at $47,189,456 in the last quarter. Insiders own 1.44% of the company’s stock.

Motorola Solutions Trading Down 2.3%

MSI opened at $467.10 on Friday. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a 12-month low of $359.36 and a 12-month 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 stock has a market capitalization of $77.38 billion, a PE ratio of 36.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 0.96. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $419.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $423.20.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $4.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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%. The company’s revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $4.04 EPS. As a group, research 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 paid a dividend of $1.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 20th. This represents a $4.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. Motorola Solutions’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.93%.

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.