Motorola Solutions is a steady, well-run business that supplies mission-critical communications technology — radios, video surveillance, and software — primarily to public safety agencies and large enterprises. The financial picture is one of consistent, profitable growth: revenue has climbed from $7.4 billion in 2020 to $11.7 billion in 2025, margins have expanded meaningfully across the board, and the most recent quarter suggests that momentum has not slowed. The company carries significant debt, but it generates enough cash to service it comfortably, and capital expenditure requirements are modest relative to revenue — a hallmark of a software- and services-enriched business model. In short, Motorola Solutions looks like a durable compounder with a strong competitive moat in a market — public safety infrastructure — where switching costs are very high and demand is largely non-discretionary.
Snapshot & Big Picture
Motorola Solutions sits at the intersection of hardware, software, and services for first responders and enterprise security teams. Its product lines include land mobile radio (LMR) systems, body cameras, fixed video infrastructure, and a growing cloud-software platform (Avigilon and PremierOne). Because governments and large enterprises tend to replace these systems on long cycles and rarely switch vendors, MSI benefits from recurring revenue streams and predictable demand. The financials reflect this: the business has grown revenue in every full year shown in our dataset, and gross margins have been rising steadily, crossing 50% in 2023 and reaching 51.7% in fiscal 2025 — a clear sign that the higher-margin software and services mix is expanding as a share of total revenue.
Latest Quarter Snapshot
The most recent data comes from the 10-Q for the quarter ended July 4, 2026, filed August 5, 2026 — making it more current than the annual figures and the best available read on where the business stands today.
| Metric | Q2 FY2026 (ended Jul 4, 2026) |
|---|---|
| Revenue | $3.13 billion |
| EBITDA | $952 million |
| Gross Margin | 53.6% |
| Operating Margin | 25.8% |
| Net Margin | 17.8% |
| Current Ratio | 1.10 |
| Debt-to-Equity | 3.38x |
| Capital Expenditures | $62 million |
| CapEx / Revenue | 1.98% |
The quarterly gross margin of 53.6% is the highest in the dataset — ahead of the full-year 2025 figure of 51.7% — suggesting the favorable mix shift toward software and services is continuing to accelerate. Operating and net margins are also running above the full-year 2025 levels, and the current ratio of 1.10 indicates adequate near-term liquidity. CapEx as a share of revenue dipped to just 1.98% this quarter, its lowest reading in the dataset, reinforcing the capital-light direction of the business.
Profitability
The multi-year trend in profitability is one of broad improvement across nearly every margin line.
| Fiscal Year | Revenue | Gross Margin | Operating Margin | Net Margin | EBITDA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | $6.04B | 47.5% | 17.4% | 9.3% | $1.34B |
| 2017 | $6.38B | 47.4% | 20.1% | -2.4% | $1.63B |
| 2018 | $7.34B | 47.4% | 17.1% | 13.2% | $1.62B |
| 2019 | $7.89B | 49.8% | 20.0% | 11.0% | $1.98B |
| 2020 | $7.41B | 48.7% | 18.7% | 12.8% | $1.79B |
| 2021 | $8.17B | 49.4% | 20.4% | 15.2% | $2.11B |
| 2022 | $9.11B | 46.4% | 18.2% | 15.0% | $2.10B |
| 2023 | $9.98B | 49.8% | 23.0% | 17.1% | $2.65B |
| 2024 | $10.82B | 50.9% | 24.8% | 14.6% | $3.02B |
| 2025 | $11.68B | 51.7% | 25.6% | 18.4% | $3.41B |
Gross margin has moved from roughly 47% in 2016–2018 to above 51% in 2025, driven by the growing contribution of software subscriptions and managed services, which carry higher margins than hardware. Operating margin has also trended upward, reaching a decade-high 25.6% in fiscal 2025. The net margin had some volatility — going negative in 2017 due to tax-related charges and dipping in 2024 — but the underlying operational profitability story is clearly improving. EBITDA has more than doubled from $1.34 billion in 2016 to $3.41 billion in 2025.
Financial Health
Motorola Solutions carries a meaningful debt load, and the debt-to-equity ratio has been volatile across the decade — largely because the company's equity base has at times been negative (due to share buybacks and pension obligations), which produces unusual or negative D/E readings in several earlier years. As the equity base has normalized, the D/E ratio has settled to around 3.5x in 2024 and 2025, and 3.38x in the most recent quarter. This is elevated but manageable given the company's strong and consistent cash generation.
The current ratio has generally stayed above 1.0x, indicating the company can meet near-term obligations. It dipped just below 1.0 in fiscal 2023 (0.998x) but recovered to 1.28x in 2024 and sits at 1.10x in the latest quarter.
Capital Expenditures
| Period | CapEx ($M) | CapEx / Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| FY2016 | $271M | 4.49% |
| FY2017 | $227M | 3.56% |
| FY2018 | $197M | 2.68% |
| FY2019 | $248M | 3.14% |
| FY2020 | $217M | 2.93% |
| FY2021 | $243M | 2.97% |
| FY2022 | $256M | 2.81% |
| FY2023 | $253M | 2.54% |
| FY2024 | $257M | 2.38% |
| FY2025 | $265M | 2.27% |
| Q2 FY2026 | $62M | 1.98% |
Capital intensity has been declining steadily over the decade. CapEx as a percentage of revenue has fallen from 4.49% in 2016 to 2.27% in 2025, and is tracking even lower in the most recent quarter at 1.98%. In dollar terms, CapEx has remained relatively flat in the $197M–$271M range for a decade while revenue has nearly doubled — meaning each dollar of new revenue requires progressively less reinvestment in physical assets. This is a hallmark of a business whose growth is increasingly driven by software and recurring services rather than capital-intensive hardware manufacturing.
Growth
| Window | Start Year | End Year | Start Revenue | End Revenue | CAGR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3-Year | FY2022 | FY2025 | $9.11B | $11.68B | 8.63% |
| 5-Year | FY2020 | FY2025 | $7.41B | $11.68B | 9.52% |
| 10-Year | — | — | — | — | Not available |
The 10-year CAGR window is not available because the SEC filing history in this dataset does not extend back the full ten years to a valid FY2015 starting point. The 3- and 5-year CAGRs of approximately 8.6% and 9.5%, respectively, tell a consistent story: Motorola Solutions has grown revenue at a high-single-digit annual rate, which is solid and above-average for a company of its size and maturity. The fact that the 5-year CAGR is slightly higher than the 3-year figure suggests growth was particularly strong coming out of 2020, and has moderated slightly but remained healthy through 2025.
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