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

Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $79.40.

Several brokerages have recently commented on HSIC. Bank of America upgraded Henry Schein from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $69.00 to $84.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Barrington Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective on shares of Henry Schein in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Henry Schein from $70.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. StockNews.com raised shares of Henry Schein from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Mizuho initiated coverage on shares of Henry Schein in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $75.00 price target on the stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Trading of Henry Schein

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cromwell Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Henry Schein by 93.4% during the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 352 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Henry Schein by 274.6% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 457 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 335 shares during the last quarter. City State Bank acquired a new position in shares of Henry Schein during the 4th quarter worth $55,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Henry Schein by 58.9% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 933 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,000 after buying an additional 346 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt boosted its stake in Henry Schein by 282.1% in the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 1,490 shares of the company’s stock valued at $109,000 after buying an additional 1,100 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.62% of the company’s stock.

Henry Schein Stock Performance

Shares of HSIC stock opened at $73.22 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $72.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $70.64. Henry Schein has a one year low of $63.67 and a one year high of $82.63. The stock has a market cap of $9.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

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