Contrasting Henry Schein (NASDAQ:HSIC) & Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX)

Henry Schein (NASDAQ:HSIC) and Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX) are both medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Henry Schein and Becton, Dickinson and Company, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Henry Schein	0	8	5	0	2.38
Becton, Dickinson and Company	0	9	3	0	2.25

Henry Schein presently has a consensus price target of $76.67, indicating a potential upside of 21.73%. Becton, Dickinson and Company has a consensus price target of $205.40, indicating a potential upside of 8.56%. Given Henry Schein’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Henry Schein is more favorable than Becton, Dickinson and Company.

Profitability

This table compares Henry Schein and Becton, Dickinson and Company’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Henry Schein	3.05%	14.36%	5.52%
Becton, Dickinson and Company	7.51%	16.23%	7.46%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

96.6% of Henry Schein shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.0% of Becton, Dickinson and Company shares are held by institutional investors. 1.1% of Henry Schein shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Becton, Dickinson and Company shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Henry Schein and Becton, Dickinson and Company”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Henry Schein	$12.67 billion	0.60	$390.00 million	$3.10	20.32
Becton, Dickinson and Company	$20.18 billion	2.69	$1.71 billion	$5.56	34.03

Becton, Dickinson and Company has higher revenue and earnings than Henry Schein. Henry Schein is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Becton, Dickinson and Company, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Henry Schein has a beta of 0.81, indicating that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Becton, Dickinson and Company has a beta of 0.25, indicating that its stock price is 75% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Becton, Dickinson and Company beats Henry Schein on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Henry Schein

Henry Schein, Inc. provides health care products and services to dental practitioners, laboratories, physician practices, and ambulatory surgery centers, government, institutional health care clinics, and other alternate care clinics worldwide. It operates through two segments, Health Care Distribution, and Technology and Value-Added Services. The Health Care Distribution segment offers dental products, including infection-control products, handpieces, preventatives, impression materials, composites, anesthetics, teeth, dental implants, gypsum, acrylics, articulators, abrasives, dental chairs, delivery units and lights, X-ray supplies and equipment, personal protective equipment, and high-tech and digital restoration equipment, as well as equipment repair services. This segment also provides medical products, such as branded and generic pharmaceuticals, vaccines, surgical products, diagnostic tests, infection-control products, X-ray products, equipment, and vitamins. The Technology and Value-Added Services segment offers software, technology, and other value-added services that include practice management software systems for dental and medical practitioners; and value-added practice solutions comprising practice consultancy, education, revenue cycle management and financial services, e-services, practice technology, and network and hardware services, as well as consulting, and continuing education services. Henry Schein, Inc. was founded in 1932 and is headquartered in Melville, New York.

About Becton, Dickinson and Company

Becton, Dickinson and Company develops, manufactures, and sells medical supplies, devices, laboratory equipment, and diagnostic products for healthcare institutions, physicians, life science researchers, clinical laboratories, pharmaceutical industry, and the general public worldwide. The company operates in three segments: BD Medical, BD Life Sciences, and BD Interventional. The BD Medical segment provides peripheral intravenous (IV) and advanced peripheral catheters, central lines, acute dialysis catheters, vascular access technology, vascular care and preparation products, needle-free IV connectors and extensions sets, closed-system drug transfer devices, hazardous drug detections, hypodermic syringes and needles, anesthesia needles and trays, enteral syringes, and sharps disposal systems; IV medication safety and infusion therapy delivery systems, medication compounding workflow systems, automated medication dispensing and supply management systems, and medication inventory optimization and tracking systems; and prefillable drug delivery systems. The BD Life Sciences segment offers specimen and blood collection products; automated blood and tuberculosis culturing, molecular testing, microorganism identification and drug susceptibility, and liquid-based cytology systems, as well as rapid diagnostic assays, microbiology laboratory automation products, and plated media products; and fluorescence-activated cell sorters and analyzers, antibodies and kits, reagent systems, and solutions for single-cell gene expression analysis, as well as clinical oncology, immunological, and transplantation diagnostic/monitoring reagents and analyzers. The BD Interventional segment provides hernia and soft tissue repair, biological and bioresorbable grafts, biosurgery, and other surgical products; surgical infection prevention; peripheral intervention products; and urology and critical care products. The company was founded in 1897 and is headquartered in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.