Earnings, sales rise at Henry Schein

It’s time for smiles at Henry Schein Inc.

The distributor of dental, medical and veterinary products, Long Island’s largest public company by revenue, boosted its earnings guidance Tuesday morning after reporting strong first quarter results.

Net income at Melville-based Henry Schein was $80.8 million, up more than 5 percent, as net sales rose nearly 8 percent. Global sales of dental products, the company’s biggest unit, rose more than 5 percent, and sales of its animal health products rose 15 percent.

Importantly for investors, the company raised its guidance on its 2012 earnings per share -- what it expects to earn for the full year -- to $4.30 to $4.40, from $4.25 to $4.34, excluding restructuring costs. Earnings in the first quarter were 89 cents per diluted share.

The company also said it would repurchase an additional $200 million of its common stock. Share repurchases are often welcome to investors because they have the potential to boost reported earnings per share.

On Monday, Fortune magazine named Henry Schein to its list of the 500 largest U.S. public companies by revenue. Schein ranked 303 on the list with revenue in 2011 of $8.5 billion.

Photo: Henry Schein chairman and chief executive Stanley M. Bergman.