DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) Raises Dividend to $0.14 Per Share

DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY – Get Rating) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 24th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of 0.14 per share by the medical instruments supplier on Friday, July 14th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 29th. This is a positive change from DENTSPLY SIRONA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13.

DENTSPLY SIRONA has increased its dividend payment by an average of 10.1% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 12 years. DENTSPLY SIRONA has a dividend payout ratio of 24.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect DENTSPLY SIRONA to earn $2.26 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 24.8%.

DENTSPLY SIRONA Stock Performance

Shares of XRAY opened at $36.91 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 1.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $39.78 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.03. DENTSPLY SIRONA has a 52 week low of $26.48 and a 52 week high of $43.24. The stock has a market cap of $7.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.91.

DENTSPLY SIRONA (NASDAQ:XRAY – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 3rd. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.05. DENTSPLY SIRONA had a negative net margin of 26.41% and a positive return on equity of 8.65%. The company had revenue of $978.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $938.16 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.52 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that DENTSPLY SIRONA will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Cord Friedrich Staehler sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.33, for a total transaction of $157,320.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 97,693 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,842,265.69. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, Director Eric Brandt sold 6,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.17, for a total value of $261,454.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 44,902 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,893,517.34. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Cord Friedrich Staehler sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.33, for a total transaction of $157,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 97,693 shares in the company, valued at $3,842,265.69. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.74% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On DENTSPLY SIRONA

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of XRAY. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA by 83.1% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,502,424 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $270,829,000 after acquiring an additional 2,497,773 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in the fourth quarter worth $60,861,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA by 85.0% in the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 2,992,857 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $95,292,000 after buying an additional 1,375,285 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA by 18.6% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,802,326 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $306,476,000 after purchasing an additional 1,224,984 shares during the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA by 25.4% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,083,334 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $161,854,000 after purchasing an additional 1,030,275 shares during the last quarter. 98.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

XRAY has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from $43.00 to $46.00 in a report on Friday, May 5th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from $37.00 to $41.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 4th. Barrington Research boosted their price objective on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from $43.00 to $51.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA from $34.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, DENTSPLY SIRONA currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.13.

About DENTSPLY SIRONA

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Dentsply Sirona, Inc engages in the design, manufacture, sales and distribution of professional dental products and technologies. It operates through the following segments: Technologies and Equipment and Consumables. The Technologies and Equipment segments comprises dental technology, equipment and healthcare consumable products such as dental implants, laboratory dental products, computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing systems, imaging systems, treatment centers and consumable medical device products.