Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) Short Interest Update

Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,840,000 shares, a growth of 6.0% from the November 30th total of 6,450,000 shares. Approximately 5.6% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,580,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.3 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on HSIC. Mizuho started coverage on shares of Henry Schein in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $75.00 price objective for the company. Barrington Research reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $82.00 target price on shares of Henry Schein in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Henry Schein from $70.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Henry Schein from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.89.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Michael S. Ettinger sold 12,240 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $918,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 87,706 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,577,950. The trade was a 12.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 1.14% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Henry Schein

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in HSIC. ING Groep NV acquired a new position in Henry Schein in the third quarter worth about $63,226,000. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new position in shares of Henry Schein in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $58,319,000. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC bought a new position in shares of Henry Schein during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $46,683,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new position in shares of Henry Schein during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $43,740,000. Finally, Southpoint Capital Advisors LP boosted 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 valued at $189,540,000 after buying an additional 600,000 shares in the last quarter. 96.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Henry Schein Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of HSIC opened at $69.20 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $72.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $70.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. Henry Schein has a 12-month low of $63.67 and a 12-month high of $82.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.87.

Henry Schein (NASDAQ:HSIC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $3.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 prior year, the company posted $1.32 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Henry Schein will post 4.78 earnings per share for the current year.

About Henry Schein

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.