StockNews.com Lowers DENTSPLY SIRONA (NASDAQ:XRAY) to Hold

StockNews.com lowered shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA (NASDAQ:XRAY) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Friday.

XRAY has been the topic of a number of other research reports. SVB Leerink assumed coverage on DENTSPLY SIRONA in a research report on Monday, February 26th. They issued an outperform rating and a $42.00 price objective on the stock. Barrington Research dropped their price target on DENTSPLY SIRONA from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Piper Sandler reissued a neutral rating and set a $32.00 price objective (down previously from $35.00) on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in a report on Friday. Leerink Partnrs reaffirmed an outperform rating on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC dropped their target price on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from $42.00 to $36.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $35.89.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Stock Performance

NASDAQ XRAY opened at $28.29 on Friday. DENTSPLY SIRONA has a 12-month low of $26.27 and a 12-month high of $41.65. The firm has a market cap of $5.87 billion, a P/E ratio of -64.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company’s 50 day moving average is $32.13 and its 200-day moving average is $32.71.

DENTSPLY SIRONA (NASDAQ:XRAY) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42. DENTSPLY SIRONA had a positive return on equity of 11.54% and a negative net margin of 2.41%. The company had revenue of $953.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $969.45 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.39 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that DENTSPLY SIRONA will post 2.04 earnings per share for the current year.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 29th were paid a $0.16 dividend. This is a boost from DENTSPLY SIRONA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.26%. DENTSPLY SIRONA’s dividend payout ratio is -145.45%.

Institutional Trading of DENTSPLY SIRONA

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in XRAY. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in the fourth quarter valued at about $114,207,000. Nuance Investments LLC increased its holdings in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 30.4% during the 4th quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 11,603,889 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $412,982,000 after purchasing an additional 2,702,457 shares during the period. Generation Investment Management LLP raised its position in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 43.4% during the 4th quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP now owns 6,598,211 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $234,830,000 after purchasing an additional 1,998,012 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 21.1% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,138,253 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $289,640,000 after buying an additional 1,419,503 shares during the period. Finally, Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its holdings in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 18.3% in the 4th quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 7,061,910 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $251,333,000 after buying an additional 1,092,922 shares during the period. 95.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.