Motorola Solutions reported revenue of $1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2019. This is up $189 million or 13% from the year-ago quarter. The company attributes the growth to strong performance in the Americas and EMEA regions. Overall, the revenue from acquisitions was $137 million in the quarter. The Products and Systems Integration segment grew 12%, and the Services and Software segment grew 14%.
GAAP operating margin was 13.8% of sales, compared with 11.6% in the year-ago quarter. The improvement was primarily due to higher sales and gross margin, partially offset by higher operating expenses related to acquisitions, said the company.
Operating cash flow was $251 million, compared with $500 million of operating cash outflow in the year-ago quarter. Free cash flow1 was $185 million, compared with $541 million of free cash outflow in the year-ago quarter.
The company invested $445 million of cash and equity to acquire VaaS International Holdings and $136 million in cash for Avtec, Inc., repurchased $145 million of common stock, paid $93 million in cash dividends and $66 million of capital expenditures.
The company ended the quarter with a backlog of $10.4 billion, up $781 million from the year-ago quarter. Services and Software was up 14% or $885 million due to growth in EMEA and the Americas. Products and Systems Integration segment backlog was down 3% or $104 million due to large projects in the Middle East and Africa in the prior year, partially offset by growth in the Americas.
In the first quarter, the company reported win of $17 million managed services contract with a mining customer in Latin America, $7 million computer-aided dispatch (CAD) and records contract for a large government customer in California and $5 million video services renewal with the Chicago Office of Emergency Management.
In addition, it reported $25 million P25 wins with New South Wales Telco Authority, $8 million TETRA order for a utility customer in Chile.
Motorola Solutions Business Outlook 2019
In the second-quarter 2019, Motorola Solutions expects revenue growth of approximately 4 to 5% compared with the second quarter of 2018. Overall in the full-year 2019, the company continues to expect revenue growth of approximately 6 to 7%.
