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

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its position in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) by 73.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 455,689 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after selling 1,287,427 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.23% of DENTSPLY SIRONA worth $8,649,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of XRAY. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in DENTSPLY SIRONA during the third quarter valued at $27,000. Kennebec Savings Bank purchased a new position in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $35,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its position in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA by 648.4% in the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,422 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 1,232 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 60.8% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,492 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 564 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp purchased a new stake in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA during the third quarter worth approximately $42,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on XRAY. Leerink Partners cut shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from $30.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com cut DENTSPLY SIRONA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and issued a $20.00 price objective on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lowered their target price on DENTSPLY SIRONA from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $23.58.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:XRAY opened at $16.55 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $18.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $21.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 0.84. DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. has a 12 month low of $16.21 and a 12 month high of $34.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.29 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.96.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. DENTSPLY SIRONA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -30.92%.

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.