Novem Group Buys Shares of 4,507 Motorola Solutions, Inc. $MSI

Key Points

• Novem Group bought a new stake of 4,507 shares of Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) in Q4, valued at about $1.73 million.
• Company insiders, including CEOs Cynthia Yazdi and Gregory Q. Brown, have sold sizable stakes—129,069 shares worth roughly $60.78 million over the past three months, leaving insiders with 1.28% ownership.
• Motorola beat Q4 expectations with $4.59 EPS vs. $4.35 and revenue of $3.38 billion (+12.3% y/y), declared a quarterly dividend of $1.21 (1.1% yield), and analysts have raised targets to an average of $502.50.

Novem Group bought a new stake in shares of Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 4,507 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,728,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Covea Finance boosted its holdings in shares of Motorola Solutions by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter. Covea Finance now owns 111,219 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $50,859,000 after buying an additional 6,153 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Motorola Solutions by 5.5% during 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 buying an additional 490,354 shares during the period. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in Motorola Solutions by 20.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,345,492 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $615,280,000 after acquiring an additional 227,062 shares during the period. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co raised its holdings in Motorola Solutions by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 29,701 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $13,582,000 after acquiring an additional 2,300 shares during the period. Finally, Barden Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Motorola Solutions in the 3rd quarter worth $1,462,000. 84.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Motorola Solutions

In related news, CEO Cynthia Yazdi sold 7,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.01, for a total transaction of $3,297,070.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,529 shares in the company, valued at $4,488,254.29. The trade was a 42.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Gregory Q. Brown sold 50,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 47,167 shares in the company, valued at $22,078,401.03. This represents a 51.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 129,069 shares of company stock worth $60,779,964 over the last three months. Company insiders own 1.28% of the company's stock.

Motorola Solutions Trading Up 1.2%

Motorola Solutions stock opened at $447.14 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.47, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.04. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $453.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $418.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $74.32 billion, a PE ratio of 35.04, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.99. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a 52 week low of $359.36 and a 52 week high of $492.22.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI - Get Free Report) last posted 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. Motorola Solutions had a return on equity of 110.75% and a net margin of 18.44%.The business had revenue of $3.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $4.04 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Motorola Solutions, Inc. will post 15.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Motorola Solutions Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Motorola Solutions from $495.00 to $506.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Motorola Solutions from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $499.00 price objective (up from $443.00) on shares of Motorola Solutions in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Motorola Solutions from $515.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Motorola Solutions from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $502.50.

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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