By Ben Fox Rubin
Motorola Solutions Inc.'s (MSI) fourth-quarter earnings rose 83%
from a year-earlier quarter stung by charges as the company's
government segment kept posting improved results, though the
enterprise business continued to lag.
The company forecast revenue growth for the new year to be 5% to
5.5%, below expectations of 6% from analysts polled by Thomson
Reuters.
For the current quarter, the company expects earnings from
continuing operations of 62 cents to 67 cents a share on sales
growth of 4% to 5%. Analysts expected 67 cents and 6%,
respectively.
Motorola Solutions is a provider of public-safety radios,
handheld scanners and telecommunications-network gear, and was
created in the split of Motorola Inc. The spinoff put the
higher-profile mobile-devices and TV-set-top-box operations into
Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., which was then acquired by Google
Inc. (GOOG) last year for about $12.5 billion.
Motorola Solutions posted a profit of $336 million, or $1.18 a
share, up from $184 million, or 56 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding stock-based compensation and other items, earnings from
continuing operations rose to $1.10 from 87 cents, above the
company's October prediction of 98 cents to $1.03 a share. The
year-earlier quarter had included $120 million of so-called other
charges and intangibles amortization, while the current quarter
included only a net $6 million.
Revenue grew 6.1% to $2.44 billion, just below analysts'
forecast of $2.45 billion.
Gross margin narrowed slightly to 50.3% from 50.4%.
Government sales were up 10% to $1.7 billion. The smaller
enterprise business posted 3% lower revenue at $733 million.
Shares closed at $58.29 Tuesday and were inactive premarket. The
stock is up 17% over the past three months.
Write to Ben Fox Rubin at ben.rubin@dowjones.com
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