Topic: How To Invest

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

Article Excerpt

A: Henry Schein Inc., $85.08, symbol HSIC on New York (Shares outstanding: 131.3 million; Market cap: $11.0 billion; www.henryschein.com), is the world’s largest provider of health-care products and services to doctors and dentists. It has more than one million customers worldwide and operations in 32 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 (94% 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 (6% of sales) provides software, technology and other value-added services to health-care practitioners. Henry…