High U.S. dollar hits Motorola’s growth

Article Excerpt

MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS INC. $67 (New York symbol MSI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 174.6 million; Market cap: $11.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 2.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.motorolasolutions.com) split from cellphone maker Motorola in 2011. This firm makes radios for police and fire vehicles. In February 2016, the company paid $1.0 billion for Airwave. That firm provides two-way radio and other communications services to 300 emergency and public service agencies in the U.K. The new operations contributed $61 million to Motorola’s sales in the three months ended April 2, 2016. However, the company gets two-thirds of its sales from outside of North America. Due to the negative impact of the high U.S. dollar and weaker demand in Latin America, its overall sales in the quarter fell 2.5%, to $1.19 billion from $1.22 billion a year earlier. Without unusual items, earnings per share jumped 36.8%, to $0.52 from $0.38. For all of 2016, Motorola expects to…