California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 54,330 Shares of Motorola Solutions, Inc. $MSI

California Public Employees Retirement System reduced its holdings in shares of Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) by 8.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 561,093 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 54,330 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System owned about 0.34% of Motorola Solutions worth $256,582,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 during the period. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in Motorola Solutions by 5.5% in the 3rd 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 during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Motorola Solutions by 1.3% in the 2nd 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 position 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 valued at $1,570,096,000 after purchasing an additional 31,744 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Motorola Solutions during the second quarter valued at about $872,307,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Cynthia Yazdi sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,488,254.29. This trade represents a 42.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Kenneth D. Denman sold 434 shares of Motorola Solutions stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $470.12, for a total transaction of $204,032.08. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 7,153 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,362,768.36. This represents a 5.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 129,069 shares of company stock worth $60,779,964. 1.44% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Barclays upped their price target on Motorola Solutions from $495.00 to $506.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Argus upgraded Motorola Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Motorola Solutions from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Northcoast Research raised shares of Motorola Solutions from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, December 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $470.00 price target on shares of Motorola Solutions in a research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Motorola Solutions presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $497.14.

Motorola Solutions Price Performance

Shares of Motorola Solutions stock opened at $473.41 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $78.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.10, a PEG ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.47. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $429.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $422.77. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a 52 week low of $359.36 and a 52 week high of $492.22.

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

Motorola Solutions Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 20th will be issued a $1.21 dividend. This represents a $4.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 20th. Motorola Solutions’s payout ratio is 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.