Moran Wealth Management LLC Sells 11,405 Shares of Motorola Solutions, Inc. $MSI

Key Points

• Moran Wealth Management LLC cut its stake in Motorola Solutions by 21.6% in Q4, selling 11,405 shares and ending the period with 41,497 shares worth about $15.91 million.
• Company insiders sold a large amount of stock recently — a total of 129,069 shares (~$60.78M) over the last three months, including CEO Gregory Q. Brown’s sale of 28,435 shares (~$13.59M) — reducing insider ownership to 1.28%.
• Analysts are broadly positive, with a consensus "Buy" rating and an average price target of $502.50 (Truist at $540), after Motorola posted a Q4 EPS beat ($4.59 vs. $4.35) and declared a $1.21 quarterly dividend (1.1% yield).

Moran Wealth Management LLC lowered its stake in Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI - Free Report) by 21.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 41,497 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 11,405 shares during the quarter. Moran Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Motorola Solutions were worth $15,907,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC bought a new stake in Motorola Solutions in the 4th quarter valued at $231,000. Chicago Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions by 7.1% in the 4th quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 2,273 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $871,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. Legacy CG LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Motorola Solutions by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Legacy CG LLC now owns 14,062 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $5,390,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Motorola Solutions by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 6,664 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $2,555,000 after buying an additional 316 shares during the period. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Motorola Solutions by 16.5% during the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 30,792 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $11,803,000 after buying an additional 4,360 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.17% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other Motorola Solutions news, 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 transaction, the director directly owned 7,153 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,362,768.36. The trade was a 5.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gregory Q. Brown sold 28,435 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $477.95, for a total transaction of $13,590,508.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 90,721 shares in the company, valued at $43,360,101.95. The trade was a 23.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 129,069 shares of company stock valued at $60,779,964 over the last three months. Insiders own 1.28% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen raised Motorola Solutions from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday. Argus upgraded shares of Motorola Solutions to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Truist Financial began coverage on shares of Motorola Solutions in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. They issued a "buy" rating and a $540.00 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded Motorola Solutions from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Motorola Solutions from $515.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $502.50.

Motorola Solutions Price Performance

Shares of MSI opened at $441.44 on Friday. 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's fifty day simple moving average is $453.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $418.74. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a 1-year low of $359.36 and a 1-year high of $492.22. The company has a market cap of $73.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.60, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.99.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $3.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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 for the quarter was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $4.04 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Motorola Solutions, Inc. will post 13.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Motorola Solutions Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 20th were paid a $1.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 20th. This represents a $4.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. Motorola Solutions's dividend payout ratio is currently 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.

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