Henry Schein forecasts 2024 profit below estimates as cyber attack impact weighs

investing.com:

(Reuters) — Henry Schein (NASDAQ:HSIC) forecast 2024 adjusted profit below Wall Street estimates on Tuesday, as the dental products distributor expects the impact from a cyber attack it reported in October to spill into this year.

The company had said on Oct. 15 it had taken some of its systems offline after the cyber attack disrupted its manufacturing and distribution divisions, contacted law enforcement authorities and engaged outside experts to investigate the breach.

«For 2024, we expect to have some short-term residual impact on merchandise sales from the incident,» said CEO Stanley Bergman.

The New York-based company expects its 2024 adjusted profit to be between $5.00 and $5.16 per share, the midpoint of which is below LSEG estimates of $5.10 per share.

The full-year forecast reflects an impact of the incident of about 15 cents per share, which will primarily affect the company's first quarter.

Shares of Henry Schein, which supplies dental products such as implants, fell 3.2% before the bell.

The company's sales for the fourth quarter fell 10.4% over the year earlier to $3.02 billion.

The quarterly sales reflected an estimated reduction of $350 million to $400 million due to the cybersecurity incident, it said.

Excluding items, the company earned 66 cents per share for the quarter, missing analysts' average estimate of 69 cents.