DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) was in 8 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. XRAY has experienced a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently. There were 12 hedge funds in our database with XRAY holdings at the end of the previous quarter.
Just as integral, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of motivations for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, let’s take a gander at the latest action surrounding DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY).
How are hedge funds trading DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY)?
At year’s end, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -33% from the third quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.
Of the funds we track, Select Equity Group, managed by Robert Joseph Caruso, holds the largest position in DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY). Select Equity Group has a $186.5 million position in the stock, comprising 2.9% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Adage Capital Management, managed by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson, which held a $47.4 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors.
Seeing as DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) has faced falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there exists a select few hedgies that slashed their entire stakes last quarter. Intriguingly, Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management sold off the largest investment of all the hedgies we track, comprising about $11.1 million in stock.. Clint Carlson’s fund, Carlson Capital, also cut its stock, about $10 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 4 funds last quarter.
What have insiders been doing with DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time frame, DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY). These stocks are Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE:TFX), C.R. Bard, Inc. (NYSE:BCR), Mindray Medical International Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:MR), CareFusion Corporation (NYSE:CFN), and The Cooper Companies, Inc. (NYSE:COO). This group of stocks are in the medical instruments & supplies industry and their market caps are similar to XRAY’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE:TFX) | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| C.R. Bard, Inc. (NYSE:BCR) | 26 | 0 | 14 |
| Mindray Medical International Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:MR) | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| CareFusion Corporation (NYSE:CFN) | 28 | 0 | 5 |
| The Cooper Companies, Inc. (NYSE:COO) | 21 | 0 | 12 |
With the returns shown by the aforementioned tactics, retail investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) applies perfectly to this mantra.
