Public safety technology company Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI) reported Q1 CY2026 results topping the market’s revenue expectations, with sales up 7.4% year on year to $2.71 billion. The company expects next quarter’s revenue to be around $3 billion, close to analysts’ estimates. Its non-GAAP profit of $3.37 per share was 3.8% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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Company Overview

Born from the company that invented the first portable handheld police radio in 1940, Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI) provides mission-critical communications, video security, and command center software solutions for public safety agencies and enterprise customers.

Revenue Growth

A company’s long-term sales performance can indicate its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but many enduring ones grow for years.

With $11.87 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, Motorola Solutions is larger than most business services companies and benefits from economies of scale, enabling it to gain more leverage on its fixed costs than smaller competitors. This also gives it the flexibility to offer lower prices.

As you can see below, Motorola Solutions’s sales grew at an impressive 9.5% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. This is a great starting point for our analysis because it shows Motorola Solutions’s demand was higher than many business services companies.

We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within business services, a half-decade historical view may miss recent innovations or disruptive industry trends. Motorola Solutions’s annualized revenue growth of 7.9% over the last two years is below its five-year trend, but we still think the results suggest healthy demand.

We can dig further into the company’s revenue dynamics by analyzing its most important segment, Software and services. Over the last two years, Motorola Solutions’s Software and services revenue averaged 19.8% year-on-year growth. This segment has outperformed its total sales during the same period, lifting the company’s performance.

This quarter, Motorola Solutions reported year-on-year revenue growth of 7.4%, and its $2.71 billion of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 0.6%. Company management is currently guiding for a 8.5% year-on-year increase in sales next quarter.

Looking further ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 8.6% over the next 12 months, similar to its two-year rate. This projection is particularly healthy for a company of its scale and suggests the market is forecasting success for its products and services.

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Adjusted Operating Margin

Motorola Solutions has been a well-oiled machine over the last five years. It demonstrated elite profitability for a business services business, boasting an average adjusted operating margin of 27.9%.

Analyzing the trend in its profitability, Motorola Solutions’s adjusted operating margin rose by 3.9 percentage points over the last five years, as its sales growth gave it operating leverage.

This quarter, Motorola Solutions generated an adjusted operating margin profit margin of 23%, down 5.3 percentage points year on year. This contraction shows it was less efficient because its expenses grew faster than its revenue.

Earnings Per Share

We track the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) for the same reason as long-term revenue growth. Compared to revenue, however, EPS highlights whether a company’s growth is profitable.

Motorola Solutions’s EPS grew at 14.1% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, higher than its 9.5% annualized revenue growth. This tells us the company became more profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded.

We can take a deeper look into Motorola Solutions’s earnings to better understand the drivers of its performance. As we mentioned earlier, Motorola Solutions’s adjusted operating margin declined this quarter but expanded by 3.9 percentage points over the last five years. Its share count also shrank by 3%, and these factors together are positive signs for shareholders because improving profitability and share buybacks turbocharge EPS growth relative to revenue growth.

Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a more recent period because it can provide insight into an emerging theme or development for the business.

For Motorola Solutions, its two-year annual EPS growth of 11.5% was lower than its five-year trend. This wasn’t great, but at least the company was successful in other measures of financial health.

In Q1, Motorola Solutions reported adjusted EPS of $3.37, up from $3.18 in the same quarter last year. This print beat analysts’ estimates by 3.8%. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Motorola Solutions’s full-year EPS of $15.59 to grow 9.8%.

Key Takeaways from Motorola Solutions’s Q1 Results

It was good to see Motorola Solutions beat analysts’ EPS expectations this quarter. We were also happy its full-year EPS guidance narrowly outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this print had some key positives. The market seemed to be hoping for more, and the stock traded down 3.3% to $419.05 immediately after reporting.

So do we think Motorola Solutions is an attractive buy at the current price? We think that the latest quarter is only one piece of the longer-term business quality puzzle. Quality, when combined with valuation, can help determine if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).