Is DENTSPLY International Inc. (XRAY) A Good Stock To Buy?

With general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers have jumped into DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) headfirst. Marshall Wace LLP, managed by Paul Marshall and Ian Wace, assembled the largest position in DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY). Marshall Wace LLP had $59.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global also initiated a $41.3 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new XRAY investors: Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and Vishal Saluja and Pham Quang’s Endurant Capital Management.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC), Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL), Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A), and Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBKR). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to XRAY’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 29 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $798 million. That figure was $1.30 billion in XRAY’s case. Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) is the least popular one with only 23 bullish hedge fund positions. DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard Agilent might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Disclosure: None