Motorola Solutions (MSI) reported a solid quarter with an increase in government revenue, but the company’s stock took a fall due to warnings on its guidance for the first quarter.
Fourth quarter sales for the company, which focuses on networks and rugged devices for public safety and other verticals, were up three percent year-over-year to $2.5 billion and flat for the year. Government sales were up 4% in the quarter and 1% for the year, while enterprise sales stood at $736 million for the quarter — up slightly year-over-year, while full-year enterprise sales were down 2% from the 2012.
Motorola Solutions said that it secured multimillion-dollar contracts with customers that included the cities of Charlotte and Greensboro, N.C.; the U.S. Navy; the Tennessee Department of Safety; and counties in Maryland, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Wisconsin and California, among others. Its international contracts for the quarter included police forces in China, Korea and Myanmar. The company also bought Twisted Pair Solutions to push forward interoperability for PTT over broadband with its own radio network.
Chairman and CEO Greg Brown said that he was “pleased with the way we finished the year.”
However, Gino Bonanotte, the company’s CFO, told investors in the company’s quarterly call that first quarter sales are expected to be down 4-6% year-over-year, while full-year sales for 2014 are projected to be flat to up 2%. That news was enough to drive the stock down, with pre-announcement trading around $67 per share followed by a plunge to less than $65 per share. The stock was slowly edging back up Thursday, trading at $65.15 per share midday.
