HighTower Advisors LLC Lowers Holdings in DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY)

HighTower Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) by 11.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 17,328 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after selling 2,187 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in DENTSPLY SIRONA were worth $468,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Scientech Research LLC bought a new stake in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in the 2nd quarter worth $846,000. VELA Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in DENTSPLY SIRONA in the 3rd quarter worth about $2,168,000. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in DENTSPLY SIRONA during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,468,000. Country Club Bank purchased a new stake in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA during the 3rd quarter valued at about $4,084,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA by 25.6% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,790,555 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $44,602,000 after acquiring an additional 364,984 shares during the period. 95.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ XRAY opened at $18.70 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 0.84. DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. has a 1 year low of $17.21 and a 1 year high of $37.60. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $20.72 and a 200-day moving average price of $23.90. The stock has a market cap of $3.72 billion, a PE ratio of -9.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.96.

DENTSPLY SIRONA (NASDAQ:XRAY) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $951.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $939.10 million. DENTSPLY SIRONA had a positive return on equity of 12.62% and a negative net margin of 10.59%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.49 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. will post 1.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be given a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.42%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. DENTSPLY SIRONA’s payout ratio is currently -30.92%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on XRAY shares. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from $35.00 to $27.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Leerink Partnrs downgraded DENTSPLY SIRONA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on DENTSPLY SIRONA from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Mizuho started coverage on DENTSPLY SIRONA in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $21.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from $30.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $27.91.

About DENTSPLY SIRONA

DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc manufactures and sells various dental products and technologies worldwide. It operates in four segments: Connected Technology Solutions, Essential Dental Solutions, Orthodontic and Implant Solutions, and Wellspect Healthcare. The company offers dental equipment comprising imaging equipment, motorized dental handpieces, treatment centers, other instruments, amalgamators, mixing machines, and porcelain furnaces; and dental CAD/CAM technologies to support dental restorations, such as intraoral scanners, 3-D printers, mills, other software and services, and a full-chairside economical restoration of esthetic ceramic dentistry, as well as DS Core, its cloud-based platform.