Cullen Investment Group LTD. Sells 10,331 Shares of Motorola Solutions, Inc. $MSI

Cullen Investment Group LTD. trimmed its holdings in shares of Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) by 39.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 15,865 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 10,331 shares during the quarter. Cullen Investment Group LTD.’s holdings in Motorola Solutions were worth $6,078,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of MSI. Orion Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Motorola Solutions during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. United Community Bank lifted its holdings in Motorola Solutions by 81.3% in the 3rd quarter. United Community Bank now owns 58 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Advocates LLC acquired a new stake in Motorola Solutions in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. JPL Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Motorola Solutions during the third quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Motorola Solutions during the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. 84.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Gregory Q. Brown sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 47,167 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,078,401.03. This represents a 51.46% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Cynthia Yazdi sold 7,000 shares of the 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $4,488,254.29. This represents a 42.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 129,069 shares of company stock valued at $60,779,964 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.44% of the company’s stock.

Motorola Solutions Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of MSI opened at $450.91 on Thursday. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a 12-month low of $359.36 and a 12-month high of $492.22. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $74.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.34, a P/E/G ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $441.41 and its 200 day moving average price is $422.30.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $4.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 110.75% and a net margin of 18.44%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $4.04 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Motorola Solutions, Inc. will post 13.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Motorola Solutions Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on MSI shares. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of 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. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Motorola Solutions from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Motorola Solutions from $495.00 to $506.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Motorola Solutions from $515.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Argus raised Motorola Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Motorola Solutions currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $497.14.

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.