Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $79.40.

HSIC has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded Henry Schein from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Mizuho initiated coverage on Henry Schein in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $75.00 price objective for the company. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Henry Schein from $70.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Bank of America upgraded Henry Schein from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $84.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Barrington Research restated an “outperform” rating and set a $82.00 price objective on shares of Henry Schein in a report on Wednesday, November 6th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Henry Schein

In other Henry Schein news, COO Michael S. Ettinger sold 12,240 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $918,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 87,706 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,577,950. This represents a 12.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.14% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Henry Schein

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Clarkston Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in Henry Schein by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Clarkston Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,397,805 shares of the company’s stock valued at $101,900,000 after buying an additional 71,560 shares during the last quarter. Nuance Investments LLC boosted its position in Henry Schein by 22.3% in the 3rd quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 2,278,081 shares of the company’s stock valued at $166,072,000 after buying an additional 414,748 shares during the last quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC bought a new position in shares of Henry Schein during the second quarter worth about $46,683,000. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of Henry Schein by 1,622.3% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 458,828 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,449,000 after purchasing an additional 432,187 shares during the last quarter. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in shares of Henry Schein during the third quarter worth about $515,000. 96.62% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Henry Schein Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of HSIC opened at $69.67 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $72.15 and a two-hundred day moving average of $70.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.42. The company has a market capitalization of $8.69 billion, a PE ratio of 28.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.89. Henry Schein has a fifty-two week low of $63.67 and a fifty-two week high of $82.63.

Henry Schein (NASDAQ:HSIC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.17 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $3.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.24 billion. Henry Schein had a return on equity of 12.90% and a net margin of 2.51%. Henry Schein’s revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.32 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Henry Schein will post 4.78 EPS for the current year.

Henry Schein Company Profile

Henry Schein, Inc provides health care products and services to dental practitioners, laboratories, physician practices, and ambulatory surgery centers, government, institutional health care clinics, and other alternate care clinics worldwide. It operates through two segments, Health Care Distribution, and Technology and Value-Added Services.