Henry Schein (NASDAQ:HSIC) Raised to Buy at Bank of America

Henry Schein (NASDAQ:HSIC) was upgraded by Bank of America from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a $84.00 target price on the stock, up from their prior target price of $69.00. Bank of America‘s target price would suggest a potential upside of 17.20% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on HSIC. Barrington Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective on shares of Henry Schein in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Mizuho started coverage on shares of Henry Schein in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $75.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Henry Schein from $70.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Henry Schein from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Henry Schein presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $79.40.

Henry Schein Price Performance

Shares of HSIC opened at $71.67 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $72.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $70.37. The firm has a market cap of $8.94 billion, a PE ratio of 29.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. Henry Schein has a 1-year low of $63.67 and a 1-year high of $82.63.

Henry Schein (NASDAQ:HSIC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.17 by $0.05. Henry Schein had a return on equity of 12.90% and a net margin of 2.51%. The company had revenue of $3.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.24 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.32 earnings per share. Henry Schein’s revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Henry Schein will post 4.78 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Michael S. Ettinger sold 12,240 shares of Henry Schein stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 87,706 shares in the company, valued at $6,577,950. This trade represents a 12.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.14% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Henry Schein

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. ING Groep NV bought a new position in shares of Henry Schein during the 3rd quarter valued at about $63,226,000. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new position in Henry Schein during the third quarter valued at approximately $58,319,000. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC purchased a new position in Henry Schein during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $46,683,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new position in Henry Schein during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $43,740,000. Finally, Southpoint Capital Advisors LP increased its stake in Henry Schein by 30.0% in the 3rd quarter. Southpoint Capital Advisors LP now owns 2,600,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $189,540,000 after acquiring an additional 600,000 shares during the last quarter. 96.62% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.