Lecap Asset Management Ltd. Takes $761,000 Position in DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY)

Lecap Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new position in DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 50,904 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock, valued at approximately $761,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in XRAY. Nuance Investments LLC lifted its stake in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 25.0% in the fourth quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 13,545,981 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock worth $257,103,000 after acquiring an additional 2,708,097 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in DENTSPLY SIRONA during the fourth quarter valued at $45,730,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 245.1% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,893,023 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock valued at $54,389,000 after buying an additional 2,054,767 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 18.7% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 12,549,242 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock valued at $238,186,000 after buying an additional 1,975,404 shares during the period. Finally, Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its position in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 24.3% during the fourth quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 9,172,876 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock valued at $174,101,000 after buying an additional 1,794,391 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.70% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "hold" rating on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on DENTSPLY SIRONA from $21.00 to $18.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Barrington Research raised their price objective on DENTSPLY SIRONA from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Morgan Stanley lowered DENTSPLY SIRONA from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $14.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on DENTSPLY SIRONA from $27.00 to $25.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $20.36.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Stock Performance

NASDAQ XRAY traded down $0.07 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $15.93. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,049,951 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,941,728. DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. has a 12 month low of $12.16 and a 12 month high of $27.95. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $15.39 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $16.55. The company has a market cap of $3.17 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

DENTSPLY SIRONA (NASDAQ:XRAY - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.14. DENTSPLY SIRONA had a positive return on equity of 14.31% and a negative net margin of 24.42%. The company had revenue of $879.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $854.75 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.42 EPS. DENTSPLY SIRONA's revenue for the quarter was down 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. will post 1.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Investors of record on Friday, June 27th will be issued a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 27th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.02%. DENTSPLY SIRONA's payout ratio is -14.10%.

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.