LI dental distributor Henry Schein beats earnings expectations
Stanley M. Bergman, chairman and chief executive of Henry Schein Inc. in Melville. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Henry Schein Inc., Long Island’s largest public company by revenue, Tuesday reported net income that beat Wall Street estimates, but fell short on revenue in a quarter that one analyst described as “a little squishy.”
Shares of the multinational medical and dental products distributor rose 3 percent to close Tuesday at $67.73.
For the quarter ended Sept. 28, the Melville company posted net income of $140.6 million, or 95 cents per share (91 cents per diluted share from continuing operations). That beat the 86 cents consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.
The quarter’s revenue of $2.51 billion, however, fell short of the $2.52 billion forecast by Zacks.
“We continue to make progress in growing organically with a focus on sales of higher-margin products while making strategic investments to supplement growth in the years ahead,” Stanley M. Bergman, Henry Schein’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.
The results from continuing operations exclude contributions from Henry Schein’s former animal health business, which was spun off in February as part of a new public company, Covetrus.
“All in, these results are a little squishy,” Elizabeth Anderson, an analyst at Manhattan brokerage and research firm EvercoreISI, said in a research note. She cited weakness in the North American dental market and a decline in gross margins.
For the quarter, dental sales increased 2.1 percent to $1.5 billion, while medical sales climbed 11.3 percent to $803.7 million.
In October, Henry Schein reached an agreement to be dismissed from a federal opioid lawsuit in Ohio, as other defendants reached settlements worth $260 million.
The agreements averted a trial to consider lawsuits filed by Ohio’s Cuyahoga and Summit counties.
Henry Schein, which was not named in the Cuyahoga County case, agreed to make a $1 million donation to establish an educational foundation with Summit County to develop “best practices regarding the proper use and prescription of opioids” and pay the county $250,000 in expenses.
It was unclear how the resolution of the Ohio cases would affect hundreds of other opioid lawsuits filed by municipalities around the country.
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Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.
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