Topic: How To Invest

Q: Thanks for all the sound advice for my portfolio! Can I get your recommendation on Henry Schein? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

A: Henry Schein Inc., $74.67, symbol HSIC on New York (Shares outstanding: 128.5 million; Market cap: $9.5 billion; www.henryschein.com), is the world’s largest provider of health-care products and services to doctors and dentists. The company has more than one million customers worldwide and operations in 33 countries, including the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Schein manages a centralized and automated distribution network, with a selection of more than 120,000 branded products, and an additional 180,000 products available as special-order items. The company conducts its business through two segments: (i) health-care distribution and (ii) technology and value-added services. These segments offer different products and services to the same customer base. The health-care distribution segment (92% of sales) distributes dental and medical consumable products, small equipment, laboratory products, large equipment, equipment repair services, branded and generic pharmaceuticals, vaccines, surgical products, diagnostic tests, infection-control products and vitamins. The global technology and value-added services group (8% of sales) provides software, technology and other value-added services to health-care practitioners. Henry…