Diversified Trust Co. Boosts Holdings in Motorola Solutions, Inc. $MSI

Diversified Trust Co. lifted its position in shares of Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) by 114.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,060 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,773 shares during the period. Diversified Trust Co.’s holdings in Motorola Solutions were worth $2,706,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in Motorola Solutions in the fourth quarter worth approximately $208,000. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Motorola Solutions in the second quarter valued at $210,000. MAI Capital Management raised its position in Motorola Solutions by 7.8% in the second quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 1,961 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $825,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 318,831 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $134,056,000 after purchasing an additional 8,736 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 967,548 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $406,815,000 after purchasing an additional 7,662 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Northcoast Research raised Motorola Solutions from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $470.00 target price on shares of Motorola Solutions in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Motorola Solutions from $515.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Motorola Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Motorola Solutions currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $497.14.

Motorola Solutions Price Performance

MSI stock opened at $454.04 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $440.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $422.10. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a 12-month low of $359.36 and a 12-month high of $492.22. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.47. The company has a market capitalization of $75.22 billion, a PE ratio of 35.58, a P/E/G ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.96.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.35 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $3.38 billion during 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%.Motorola Solutions’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $4.04 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Motorola Solutions, Inc. will post 13.55 EPS for the current year.

Motorola Solutions Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other Motorola Solutions news, CEO Cynthia Yazdi sold 7,000 shares of the 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,529 shares in the company, valued at $4,488,254.29. This represents a 42.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kenneth D. Denman sold 434 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director directly owned 7,153 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,362,768.36. This represents a 5.72% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 129,069 shares of company stock valued at $60,779,964. 1.44% of the stock is currently 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.