Legal & General Group Plc Trims Stake in Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC)

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its stake in shares of Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC - Free Report) by 32.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 534,298 shares of the company's stock after selling 254,452 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.43% of Henry Schein worth $36,973,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in HSIC. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in Henry Schein by 274.6% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 457 shares of the company's stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 335 shares in the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Henry Schein by 3,347.1% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 586 shares of the company's stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 569 shares in the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Henry Schein by 91.2% during the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 677 shares of the company's stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 323 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Henry Schein by 23.2% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 759 shares of the company's stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the period. Finally, City State Bank bought a new stake in Henry Schein during the fourth quarter valued at $55,000. 96.62% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Philip A. Laskawy sold 2,604 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 24,805 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,762,147.20. The trade was a 9.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Bradford C. Connett sold 4,036 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.15, for a total value of $287,161.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 62,688 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,460,251.20. This represents a 6.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.14% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Henry Schein Stock Up 2.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:HSIC traded up $1.44 during trading on Friday, reaching $64.73. 1,390,004 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,610,124. Henry Schein, Inc. has a 52-week low of $60.56 and a 52-week high of $82.49. The stock has a market cap of $7.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $70.67 and a two-hundred day moving average of $72.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.42.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on HSIC. UBS Group dropped their price target on Henry Schein from $83.00 to $80.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. StockNews.com cut Henry Schein from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday. Barrington Research reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Henry Schein in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Bank of America upgraded Henry Schein from an "underperform" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $84.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Henry Schein from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. 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 company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $81.10.

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.