Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) Stock Rating Lowered by Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded Motorola Solutions from a "buy" to a "hold," but the stock still carries a MarketBeat consensus of Buy with an average price target of $502.50 and several firms (JPMorgan, Barclays, Morgan Stanley) maintaining or raising targets.
• Motorola beat expectations for the quarter with EPS of $4.59 versus $4.35 expected and revenue of $3.38 billion (up 12.3% year-over-year), and analysts forecast full-year EPS of about 15.25.
• Significant insider selling has occurred recently—CEO Cynthia Yazdi sold 7,000 shares and Gregory Q. Brown sold 28,435 shares—totaling 129,069 shares (~$60.8M) over three months, even as institutional ownership remains high at 84.17%.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI - Get Free Report) was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report issued on Sunday.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Weiss Ratings raised Motorola Solutions from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Morgan Stanley reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $470.00 target price on shares of Motorola Solutions in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Argus raised Motorola Solutions to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Motorola Solutions from $515.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Motorola Solutions from $495.00 to $506.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Motorola Solutions presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $502.50.

Motorola Solutions Stock Performance

NYSE MSI opened at $438.50 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $72.88 billion, a PE ratio of 34.37, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.99. 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 stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $454.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $418.06. Motorola Solutions has a twelve month low of $359.36 and a twelve month high of $492.22.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.35 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $3.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.34 billion. Motorola Solutions had a return on equity of 110.75% and a net margin of 18.44%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $4.04 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Motorola Solutions will post 15.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Motorola Solutions

In related news, CEO Cynthia Yazdi sold 7,000 shares of Motorola Solutions stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Gregory Q. Brown sold 28,435 shares of Motorola Solutions stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $477.95, for a total value of $13,590,508.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 90,721 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,360,101.95. This trade represents a 23.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have 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 corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Motorola Solutions

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MSI. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Motorola Solutions by 540.0% in the first quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 64 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. KPP Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Motorola Solutions in the first quarter worth $219,000. Root Financial Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Motorola Solutions by 29.6% in the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 302 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $131,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. USS Investment Management Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Motorola Solutions by 2.7% in the first quarter. USS Investment Management Ltd now owns 31,067 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $13,480,000 after acquiring an additional 807 shares during the last quarter. Finally, IFM Investors Pty Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Motorola Solutions by 4.0% in the first quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 35,120 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $15,241,000 after acquiring an additional 1,340 shares during the last quarter. 84.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.

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