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

Heartland Advisors Inc. boosted 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 disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 712,400 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after buying an additional 161,653 shares during the period. Heartland Advisors Inc.’s holdings in DENTSPLY SIRONA were worth $13,521,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 15,105.1% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,503,591 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $85,478,000 after purchasing an additional 4,473,972 shares in the last quarter. Nuance Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA by 25.0% in the 4th quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 13,545,981 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $257,103,000 after buying an additional 2,708,097 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA during the 4th quarter valued at about $45,730,000. Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $174,101,000 after acquiring an additional 1,794,391 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 206.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,847,389 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $49,990,000 after acquiring an additional 1,244,326 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.70% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Gregory T. Lucier bought 15,142 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were acquired at an average price of $16.51 per share, with a total value of $249,994.42. Following the transaction, the director now owns 81,971 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,353,341.21. The trade was a 22.66 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on XRAY. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and issued a $20.00 price target on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from $30.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, DENTSPLY SIRONA currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $23.33.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ XRAY opened at $15.64 on Friday. DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. has a twelve month low of $14.78 and a twelve month high of $33.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $17.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $20.26. The firm 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 Announces Dividend

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

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.