Heartland Advisors Inc. Purchases 161,653 Shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY)

Heartland Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) by 29.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 712,400 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after purchasing an additional 161,653 shares during the quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. owned 0.36% of DENTSPLY SIRONA worth $13,521,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 15,105.1% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,503,591 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $85,478,000 after acquiring an additional 4,473,972 shares in the last quarter. Nuance Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA by 25.0% during the fourth quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 13,545,981 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $257,103,000 after purchasing an additional 2,708,097 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA during the fourth quarter valued at $45,730,000. Cooke & Bieler LP increased its holdings in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 24.3% in the 4th quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 9,172,876 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $174,101,000 after buying an additional 1,794,391 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 206.3% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,847,389 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $49,990,000 after buying an additional 1,244,326 shares during the last quarter. 95.70% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on XRAY shares. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from $21.00 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and set a $20.00 target price on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded DENTSPLY SIRONA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on DENTSPLY SIRONA from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $23.33.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ XRAY opened at $15.64 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 $14.78 and a 1 year high of $33.42. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $17.70 and a 200-day moving average price of $20.26. The stock has a market cap of $3.11 billion, a PE ratio of -7.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.98.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.16 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.09%. DENTSPLY SIRONA’s dividend payout ratio is presently -14.07%.

Insider Activity

In other DENTSPLY SIRONA news, Director Gregory T. Lucier purchased 15,142 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were bought at an average cost of $16.51 per share, with a total value of $249,994.42. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 81,971 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,353,341.21. This trade represents a 22.66 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Company Profile

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.