Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires New Stake in DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 12,800 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock, valued at approximately $456,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in XRAY. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC lifted its position in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 104.2% during the 3rd quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 774 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 395 shares in the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in DENTSPLY SIRONA during the 4th quarter worth about $47,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its position in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 41.2% during the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 1,504 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 439 shares in the last quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV bought a new stake in DENTSPLY SIRONA during the 4th quarter worth about $71,000. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its position in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 85.5% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,379 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $150,000 after buying an additional 2,018 shares in the last quarter. 95.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on XRAY. StockNews.com raised shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 19th. SVB Leerink began coverage on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in a research note on Monday, February 26th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $42.00 price objective on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price objective on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Leerink Partnrs restated an “outperform” rating on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, DENTSPLY SIRONA presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.50.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of XRAY opened at $30.69 on Tuesday. DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. has a 52 week low of $26.27 and a 52 week high of $43.24. The firm has a market cap of $6.36 billion, a P/E ratio of -49.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.98. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $32.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.38.

DENTSPLY SIRONA (NASDAQ:XRAY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.01. DENTSPLY SIRONA had a negative net margin of 3.33% and a positive return on equity of 11.14%. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $972.61 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.46 EPS. DENTSPLY SIRONA’s quarterly revenue was up 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current year.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 29th were given a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.09%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This is a positive change from DENTSPLY SIRONA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. DENTSPLY SIRONA’s dividend payout ratio is presently -103.22%.

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.