Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Stock Position in DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,743,116 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after selling 47,439 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.88% of DENTSPLY SIRONA worth $47,159,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA by 377.2% during the second quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 58,700 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $1,462,000 after acquiring an additional 46,400 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its stake in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA by 448.0% during the second quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 256,267 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $6,384,000 after buying an additional 209,506 shares during the period. LRI Investments LLC boosted its position in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 82.7% during the second quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 1,246 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 564 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. grew its stake in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 9,658 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $241,000 after acquiring an additional 453 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 28.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,090,490 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $52,074,000 after acquiring an additional 457,333 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.70% of the company’s stock.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ XRAY opened at $18.70 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $20.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $23.85. The company has a market cap of $3.72 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.97. DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. has a 12-month low of $17.21 and a 12-month high of $37.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

DENTSPLY SIRONA (NASDAQ:XRAY) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $951.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $939.10 million. DENTSPLY SIRONA had a positive return on equity of 12.62% and a negative net margin of 10.59%. The company’s revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.49 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. will post 1.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. DENTSPLY SIRONA’s payout ratio is -30.92%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

XRAY has been the subject of several analyst reports. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on DENTSPLY SIRONA from $31.00 to $24.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Mizuho assumed coverage on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $21.00 price objective for the company. Needham & Company LLC decreased their target price on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from $34.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from $35.00 to $27.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Barrington Research decreased their price target on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from $36.00 to $24.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 8th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $27.91.

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.