LPL Financial LLC Trims Stake in Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC)

LPL Financial LLC cut its position in shares of Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) by 71.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,539 shares of the company’s stock after selling 21,487 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in Henry Schein were worth $591,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HSIC. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Henry Schein by 6.9% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 286,475 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,882,000 after buying an additional 18,458 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Henry Schein in the third quarter worth $239,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in shares of Henry Schein during the third quarter worth $109,000. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Henry Schein by 54.9% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 13,942 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,016,000 after purchasing an additional 4,939 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Henry Schein by 14.0% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 37,637 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,673,000 after purchasing an additional 4,621 shares during the last quarter. 96.62% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on HSIC shares. Bank of America upgraded shares of Henry Schein from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $69.00 to $84.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Barrington Research reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of Henry Schein in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on Henry Schein in a research report on Friday, February 14th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $80.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com lowered Henry Schein from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Henry Schein from $83.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Henry Schein currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.10.

Henry Schein Trading Up 1.5 %

NASDAQ HSIC opened at $65.52 on Thursday. Henry Schein, Inc. has a 52 week low of $60.56 and a 52 week high of $82.49. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $69.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $71.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The firm has a market cap of $8.03 billion, a PE ratio of 26.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.84.

Henry Schein (NASDAQ:HSIC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The company reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $3.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. Henry Schein had a return on equity of 12.90% and a net margin of 2.51%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Henry Schein, Inc. will post 4.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Henry Schein news, Director Philip A. Laskawy sold 2,604 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.04, for a total transaction of $184,988.16. Following the transaction, the director now owns 24,805 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,762,147.20. This represents a 9.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Bradford C. Connett sold 4,036 shares of Henry Schein stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.15, for a total transaction of $287,161.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 62,688 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,460,251.20. The trade was a 6.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.14% of the company’s stock.

Henry Schein 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.