New York State Teachers Retirement System Reduces Position in Motorola Solutions, Inc. $MSI

Key Points

• New York State Teachers Retirement System trimmed its stake by 2.3%, leaving it with 115,540 shares of Motorola Solutions worth about $44.29 million.
• CEO Gregory Q. Brown sold 50,000 shares at roughly $468.09 (≈$23.4M), part of insider sales totaling 129,069 shares (~$60.78M) over three months and leaving insiders with 1.28% ownership.
• Analysts remain largely positive with an average Buy rating and a $502.50 average price target; Motorola also beat Q4 estimates (EPS $4.59 vs. $4.35) and pays a $1.21 quarterly dividend (≈1.1% yield).

New York State Teachers Retirement System trimmed its position in Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI - Free Report) by 2.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 115,540 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 2,688 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.07% of Motorola Solutions worth $44,289,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Orion Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Motorola Solutions in the third quarter worth about $25,000. United Community Bank raised its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Advocates LLC purchased a new position in shares of Motorola Solutions in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. JPL Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Motorola Solutions during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Field & Main Bank purchased a new stake in Motorola Solutions in the third quarter worth $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.17% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Gregory Q. Brown sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $468.09, for a total value of $23,404,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 47,167 shares of the company's stock, valued at $22,078,401.03. This represents a 51.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kenneth D. Denman sold 434 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 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. Insiders sold a total of 129,069 shares of company stock worth $60,779,964 over the last three months. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on MSI shares. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Motorola Solutions from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective 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. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Motorola Solutions from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Sunday, April 26th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $470.00 target price on shares of Motorola Solutions in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Argus raised shares of Motorola Solutions to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $502.50.

Motorola Solutions Stock Down 0.7%

MSI opened at $436.05 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 has a market capitalization of $72.47 billion, a PE ratio of 34.17, a PEG ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.93. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a 1-year low of $359.36 and a 1-year high of $492.22. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $452.44 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $417.66.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $4.59 earnings per share 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 period in the previous year, the business earned $4.04 earnings per share. Motorola Solutions's quarterly revenue was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Motorola Solutions, Inc. will post 15.25 EPS for the current year.

Motorola Solutions Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 20th were issued a dividend of $1.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 20th. This represents a $4.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. Motorola Solutions's payout ratio is currently 37.93%.

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.

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