Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund Sold Dentsply Sirona (XRAY) due to Weak Dental Market

Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund” first-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The growth stock trade that had driven U.S. stocks higher since late 2022 came undone in the first quarter of 2025. In the quarter, the fund’s Investor Class fund ARTQX returned -1.03%, Advisor Class fund APDQX posted a return of – 0.97%, and Institutional Class fund APHQX returned -0.97%, compared to a -2.11% return for the Russell Midcap Value Index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund highlighted stocks such as Dentsply Sirona Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY). Dentsply Sirona Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) is a global manufacturer and distributor of various dental products and technologies. The one-month return of Dentsply Sirona Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) was -0.13%, and its shares lost 42.80% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 3, 2025, Dentsply Sirona Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) stock closed at $15.89 per share, with a market capitalization of $3.17 billion.

Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund stated the following regarding Dentsply Sirona Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:

“We also sold Dentsply Sirona Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY), a global dental products manufacturer. The dental market has been challenging due to a combination of weak macro conditions, higher interest rates that are pushing out capital equipment sales and competitive pressures. While the company continues to generate free cash flow, which is being used to buy back stock cheaply and pay a dividend, we chose to sell our position in favor of other opportunities as we believe improvement in the business will take longer than we had expected.”

Is DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (XRAY) The Most Undervalued Stock With Smart Money Ratings?

A doctor adjusting dental equipment in a modern dental clinic.

Dentsply Sirona Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 40 hedge fund portfolios held Dentsply Sirona Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) at the end of the first quarter, which was 38 in the previous quarter. Dentsply Sirona Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) reported $879 million in revenues in the first quarter of 2025, down 7.7% compared to Q1 2024. While we acknowledge the potential of Dentsply Sirona Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the undervalued AI stock set for massive gains.

In another article, we covered Dentsply Sirona Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) and shared the list of most undervalued stocks with smart money ratings. Dentsply Sirona Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) detracted from Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund’s performance in the previous quarter. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.