Villanova Investment Management Co LLC Invests $1.17 Million in DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY)

Villanova Investment Management Co LLC purchased a new stake in DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 61,800 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock, valued at approximately $1,173,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,612,370 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $68,584,000 after purchasing an additional 64,542 shares during the period. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA by 41.2% in the 4th quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. now owns 2,304,100 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $43,732,000 after buying an additional 672,200 shares during the period. Skba Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $10,090,000. Heartland Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 29.4% during the fourth quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. now owns 712,400 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $13,521,000 after acquiring an additional 161,653 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in DENTSPLY SIRONA in the fourth quarter worth $45,730,000. 95.70% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on XRAY. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $20.00 in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Mizuho dropped their price objective on 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 reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $20.00 price objective on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on DENTSPLY SIRONA from $30.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Barrington Research reduced their target price on DENTSPLY SIRONA from $24.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.33.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Stock Up 0.1 %

XRAY stock opened at $14.94 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.97 billion, a PE ratio of -7.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.98. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $17.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.05. DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $14.61 and a fifty-two week high of $33.22. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.28%. DENTSPLY SIRONA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -14.07%.

Insider Transactions at DENTSPLY SIRONA

In other DENTSPLY SIRONA news, Director Gregory T. Lucier purchased 15,142 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 81,971 shares of the company’s stock, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

DENTSPLY SIRONA 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.