Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Purchases 28,813 Shares of Motorola Solutions, Inc. $MSI

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 925,885 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 28,813 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in Motorola Solutions were worth $423,374,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Orion Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Motorola Solutions in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. United Community Bank grew its stake in Motorola Solutions by 81.3% in the third quarter. United Community Bank now owns 58 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the period. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Motorola Solutions in the third quarter worth about $33,000. Field & Main Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Motorola Solutions during the third quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Salomon & Ludwin LLC bought a new position in shares of Motorola Solutions during the 3rd quarter valued at about $38,000. 84.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Motorola Solutions news, CEO Gregory Q. Brown sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $468.09, for a total transaction of $23,404,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 47,167 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,078,401.03. The trade was a 51.46% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kenneth D. Denman sold 434 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $470.12, for a total value of $204,032.08. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,153 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,362,768.36. The trade was a 5.72% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 100,634 shares of company stock valued at $47,189,456 in the last 90 days. 1.44% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on MSI. Argus raised Motorola Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Motorola Solutions from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, December 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Motorola Solutions from $515.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Motorola Solutions from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $470.00 target price on shares of Motorola Solutions in a report on Thursday, February 12th. One analyst has 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.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $497.14.

Motorola Solutions Stock Down 0.4%

Motorola Solutions stock opened at $478.09 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.47. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a 1-year low of $359.36 and a 1-year high of $492.22. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $417.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $422.89. The company has a market cap of $79.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 0.96.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) 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. The company had revenue of $3.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.34 billion. Motorola Solutions had a net margin of 18.44% and a return on equity of 110.75%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $4.04 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Motorola Solutions, Inc. will post 13.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Motorola Solutions Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 20th will be paid a $1.21 dividend. This represents a $4.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 20th. Motorola Solutions’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.