DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) Short Interest Update

DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) saw a large increase in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 10,570,000 shares, an increase of 31.1% from the February 28th total of 8,060,000 shares. Currently, 5.4% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 2,870,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.7 days.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of XRAY stock opened at $14.94 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $17.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $20.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.97 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.98. DENTSPLY SIRONA 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 Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on XRAY shares. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on DENTSPLY SIRONA from $30.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from $35.00 to $27.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Barrington Research lowered their price objective on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from $24.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Mizuho cut their target price on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from $21.00 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, DENTSPLY SIRONA has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $23.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Gregory T. Lucier purchased 15,142 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $16.51 per share, for a total transaction of $249,994.42. Following the completion of the purchase, 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of DENTSPLY SIRONA

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,183,260 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $383,078,000 after buying an additional 65,478 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 14,500,409 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $275,218,000 after acquiring an additional 348,532 shares during the last quarter. Nuance Investments LLC grew 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 acquiring an additional 2,708,097 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of 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 worth $238,186,000 after purchasing an additional 1,975,404 shares during the period. Finally, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 11,539,418 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $219,018,000 after purchasing an additional 314,343 shares during the last quarter. 95.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.