Principal Financial Group Inc. Increases Holdings in Motorola Solutions, Inc. $MSI

Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 368,660 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 18,443 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Motorola Solutions were worth $168,585,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSI. Orion Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Motorola Solutions during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Motorola Solutions during the third quarter worth $33,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Motorola Solutions by 289.5% during the second quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 74 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Field & Main Bank purchased a new position in Motorola Solutions during the third quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Salomon & Ludwin LLC bought a new stake in Motorola Solutions in the 3rd quarter valued at $38,000. Institutional investors own 84.17% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Motorola Solutions from $509.00 to $495.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 31st. Northcoast Research raised Motorola Solutions from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Piper Sandler raised Motorola Solutions from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $465.00 to $443.00 in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Motorola Solutions from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $491.86.

Motorola Solutions Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of NYSE MSI opened at $402.58 on Monday. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a 1-year low of $359.36 and a 1-year high of $492.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.59, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The business’s 50 day moving average is $381.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $421.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $67.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.31, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.00.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 31st. The communications equipment provider reported $4.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.85 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.99 billion. Motorola Solutions had a return on equity of 118.48% and a net margin of 18.71%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.74 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Motorola Solutions, Inc. will post 13.55 EPS for the current year.

Motorola Solutions Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 15th were given a $1.21 dividend. This is a boost from Motorola Solutions’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.01. This represents a $4.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 15th. Motorola Solutions’s dividend payout ratio is 38.84%.

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.