Henry Schein's stock falls premarket as earnings hit by impact of cyberattack

By Ciara Linnane

Profit and sales fall short of estimates after October event

Henry Schein Inc.'s stock fell 3% early Tuesday, after the provider of dental and medical supplies' fourth-quarter earnings came in short of expectations, hurt by higher-than-usual acquisition-related costs and the continued impact of a cyberattack in 2023.

The company (HSIC) disclosed last year that on Oct. 14 of 2023, a portion of its manufacturing and distribution businesses were hit by a cyberattack.

The Melville, N.Y.-based company had net income of $18 million, or 13 cents a share, for the quarter, down from $47 million, or 34 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Adjusted per-share earnings came to 66 cents, below the 70-cent FactSet consensus.

Sales fell to $3.017 billion from $3.371 billion a year ago, also below the $3.037 billion FactSet consensus.

The profit number includes 5 cents of acquisition costs and 70 cents to 75 cents of a hit from the cybersecurity incident. The company invested $287 million in business acquisitions in the quarter and $955 million for all of 2023.

"For 2024, while we expect to have some short-term residual impact on merchandise sales from the incident, we believe we will continue to strengthen our leading market position,' CEO Stanley M. Bergman said in a statement.

The company is now expecting 2024 adjusted EPS of $5.00 to $5.16, while FactSet is expecting $5.10.

It expects a residual impact from the cyberattack of about 15 cents a share, which will mostly land in the first quarter.

Sales are expected to grow about 8% to 12% over 2023, while FactSet is expecting sales to grow about 9.5%.

By segment, global dental sales fell 10.95 to $1.8 billion in the fourth quarter, while merchandise sales fell 11.3% to $1.3 billion. Equipment sales fell 9.7% to $500 million and Global medical sales fell 17% to $1.0 billion.

Global technology and value-added services sales rose 7.1% to $200 million.

The stock has gained 2.8% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 SPX has gained 27%.

-Ciara Linnane

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02-27-24 0702ET

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