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Henry Schein, Inc. (HSIC)

Q4 2018 Earnings Call· Wed, Feb 20, 2019

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Henry Schein Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's call, Carolynne Borders, Henry Schein's Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Carolynne.

Carolynne Borders

Analyst

Thank you, Tiffany, and thanks to each of you for joining us to discuss Henry Schein's results for the 2018 fourth quarter and full year. With me on the call today are Stanley Bergman, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Henry Schein; and Steven Paladino, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I would like to state that certain comments made during this call will include information that is forward-looking. As you know, risks and uncertainties involved in the company's business may affect the matters referred to in forward-looking statements. As a result, the company's performance may materially differ from those expressed in or indicated by such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained in Henry Schein's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, all comments about the markets we serve, including end market growth rates and market share, are based upon the company's internal analysis and estimates. The contents of this conference call contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of the date of the live broadcast, February 20, 2019. Henry Schein undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this call. [Operator Instructions]. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Stanley Bergman.

Stanley Bergman

Analyst

Thank you, Carolynne. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. 2018 has been a historic and extremely busy year at Henry Schein as we further position the company to advance our 2018 to 2020 strategic plan. First, we announced the spin-off of our global Animal Health business, which is now complete. We believe that Covetrus represents a significant global technology-enabled provider of products and services for the companion animal health market. We expect customers as well as suppliers will benefit from the technology, practice management software and insights offered by Covetrus to help drive better clinical outcomes for pets patients. This past year, we also announced the formation of Henry Schein One, which advances practice efficiency and clinical effectiveness while carrying our dental practice management software with the new demand generation tools to help customers better communicate with patients and to drive increase traffic into the dental practice. This joint venture will not only, of course, be a way to advance our general sales with our dental customers but will provide organic growth and a terrific platform for inorganic and acquisition bolt-ons to make this business even more effective over the years to come. It's really quite profitable and expected to be even more profitable. Last, we began restructuring efforts, which Steven will discuss in further detail and which required a great deal of focus for most of the year and in particular, the last 6 months of the year. Together, these efforts are strategically positioning Henry Schein for continued success, and I want to offer special thanks to our Team Schein Members across the globe for the significant contributions to these important efforts. Let me add, although challenges in implementing all 3 of these initiatives, generally, the morale in the company is very good, and generally, these programs have been successfully implemented. The work involved in the spin-off was significant, likewise with Henry Schein One and also the restructuring program. As we begin the new year, we are most excited about the future of Henry Schein. We believe the long-term business opportunities remain attractive in the Global Dental and Medical office market as well as the ultimate care sites. This is where we're focused. We're focused on wellness and prevention, and we believe this is where health care needs to be heading and is indeed heading. And we believe we're in a very good start to continue to advance shareholder value. We also believe our long-standing strategy of organic and acquisition growth will enable us to continue to build upon our market share positions over time as we offer the broadest range of solutions in the markets we serve, including Medical and dental supply chain and specialty product and services solutions as well as dental technology through, of course, Henry Schein One. At this time, I'll ask Steven to review our financial results and guidance. And then I'll provide some additional commentary on our recent business performance and accomplishments. Steven, please.

Steven Paladino

Analyst

Okay. Thank you, Stanley, and good morning to all. As we begin, I'd like to point out that I will be discussing our results on an as-reported basis and GAAP basis and also on a non-GAAP basis. Our Q4 2018 and Q4 2017 non-GAAP results exclude certain items that are detailed in Exhibit B of today's press release, which is available in the Investor Relations section of our website. We believe the non-GAAP financial measures provide investors with useful information about the financial performance of our business, enable the comparison of financial results between periods where certain items may vary independently of business performance and allow for greater transparency with respect to key metrics used by management in operating our business. These non-GAAP financial measures are presented solely for informational and comparative purposes and should not be regarded as a replacement for corresponding GAAP measures. For a detailed reconciliation, see Exhibit B in this morning's earnings release. Also, to facilitate comparisons against past results, we are providing unaudited financial information for the years 2016, 2017 and 2018 and for each quarter of 2018 on a continuing operations basis, so excluding the Animal Health business. This can be found on exhibit C and D of today's press release. If you turn to our results for the quarter, net sales for the quarter ended December 29, 2018, were $3.4 billion, reflecting a 1.7% increase compared with the fourth quarter of 2017 with internally generated sales growth in local currencies of 2.1%. When also excluding the impact of certain products switching from direct sales to agency sales, our normalized internal sales growth in local currencies was 2.6%. You can see the details of our sales growth that are contained in Exhibit A of today's earnings news release. On a GAAP basis, operating margin…

Stanley Bergman

Analyst

Thank you, Steven. Before I review highlights from the fourth quarter, I would like to review several highlights of 2018. We achieved net sales of $13.2 billion, which is up 5.9% from the prior year. Internal sales in local currencies increased by 3.4%. GAAP diluted EPS increased by 35.8% versus 2017 non-GAAP results. And non-GAAP diluted earnings per share growth was 14.7% versus 2017 non-GAAP results. We are, of course, pleased with our operating cash flow of $684.7 million, which increased by $139.2 million versus 2017. We did not repurchase shares during the period of time before we announced the spin-off of our Animal Health business. Following the announcement in April, we spent $200 million to repurchase approximately 2.5 million shares of our common stock in 2018, reflecting our confidence in the strength of our business and our commitment to continuing to deliver shareholder value. In addition, 2018 -- during the year 2018, we completed 5 major -- majority-owned strategic transactions excluding Animal Health transactions, just Dental and Medical, as we continue to expand our geographic presence and enhance our product offering. Together, these acquisitions have trading 12 months' revenue at the time of purchase of approximately $132 million. We also announced the formation of Henry Schein One, which had pro forma 2017 sales of approximately $400 million. Our acquisitions in 2018 expanded our digital dentistry solutions for implants and orthodontics. And in Medical, we announced an agreement to acquire a leading provider of mission-critical medical products for the defense and Public Safety markets, North American Rescue. Going forward, we have significant opportunities to allocate capital towards advancing our 2018 to 2020 strategic plan, which is centered around 3 concepts, 3 major goals. Just on the distribution side, the goal of expansion of our core dental and Medical businesses as…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. Your first question comes from the line of Jeff Johnson with Baird.

Jeffrey Johnson

Analyst

Can you hear me okay?

Stanley Bergman

Analyst

Yes, we can.

Jeffrey Johnson

Analyst

So I just wanted to focus on guidance here for a second and kind of even your 2018 base number of $3.17. So Steve, I think we're all trying to circle around 3 different factors. There's stranded costs that are impacting. There's the TSA agreements with Covetrus that should help at least in 2019. And then there was the cash infusion from Covetrus, the $1.1 billion. So in that $3.17 number, I guess, my question is are there any impacts of any of those 3 factors? And then how are you thinking those 3 factors combined to impact then the 7% to 9% growth guidance for 2019?

Stanley Bergman

Analyst

Okay. So the 2018 numbers, there are no real impact related to stranded cost because nothing is stranded during 2018. And there is no impact to TSAs and reimbursement in 2018. And last, since we didn't get the cash until first week of February 2019, the impact of the $1.1 billion is also not included in 2018. Let's address those issues in 2019 because I understand there is a little bit of confusion on that. First, on the cash infusion, it's 11 months worth of impact, but it's important to note a couple of things on our interest rate line. One is that we had temporary credit lines in place in anticipation of getting that billion dollar-plus cash infusion. Those temporary credit lines have low interest rates because they were floating in low interest rate credit lines. We'll also have assumed that there will be some rate increases in 2019. Who knows if that's going to happen or not, but for conservatism, we did assume in our guidance that there would be some rate increases in 2019 that will increase our overall interest expense. Turning to stranded cost. We do expect to have a modest amount in 2019 of stranded cost. We expect that to be in the several million dollar range. That could change a little bit, but that's the expectation now that's built into our guidance. We also expect that when you look at the cost in 2018, it does not include certain variable cost that will increase in providing those services to Covetrus. So the 2019 expenses will be higher because there'll be more variable expenses that will be chargeable to Covetrus to perform their services. And the last thing maybe I'll point out is we're still expecting -- you see in Q4 that foreign exchange, currency translation negatively impacted our quarter by $0.02 per share. It's just for the quarter. So we're expecting to have a little bit of continued headwind in foreign exchange built into our guidance. And then the last thing I'll mention, sorry for such a long-winded answer, is that we saw in Q4 a soft market in a couple of markets. And we are also assuming that market conditions remain consistent. So we're assuming that, well, let me say the opposite. We are not assuming that market conditions improve. Now we're hopeful that, that can also be a conservative assumption. But right now, we think that's the best way of building our guidance, assuming the market conditions remain consistent with what we've seen in recent history.

Jeffrey Johnson

Analyst

That's helpful, Steve. And just my very quick follow-up. On the amended 8-K that you filed on Friday and the restated pro forma numbers for 2018 year-to-date have come down in that filing, was that -- did those numbers come down because of stranded cost? Or did those numbers come down because you just allocated or reallocated and decided that there were more cost remaining on the business that forced you to do that or that required you to do the restatement of the 8-K?

Steven Paladino

Analyst

Yes. So it was the latter. It was not because of stranded cost. It was because when we filed the initial 8-K, and it's a very complication -- complicated separation of cost between continued and discontinued operations, and we made estimates for what pertains to continued versus discontinued operations. And as we continue to refine those numbers, we realized that those estimates were not as accurate as we would've liked. And therefore, we filed that 8-K last week to adjust for that.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Nathan Rich with Goldman Sachs.

Nathan Rich

Analyst · Goldman Sachs.

Maybe just sticking on guidance. You talked about EPS growth of 7% to 9% from continuing operations. That, I guess, is at the lower end of the longer-term target of high single to low double digits. So Steve, can you maybe just talk about what's unique to this year that's causing growth to be at the lower end of that range? And maybe within that, could you also comment specifically on your expectations for margins. They look like pro forma margin were roughly flat. I'll just be curious what you're expecting for 2019.

Steven Paladino

Analyst · Goldman Sachs.

Sure. Some of the things I said on the earlier questions, I'll repeat. There is an impact of stranded cost in 2019. We are anticipating some foreign exchange headwind. Maybe another thing I'll mention is -- that talked about on the prepared comments. If you look at the flu season this year, it was the mildest flu season in many years. And while that did not impact our sales of the influenza vaccine, it did impact and we're seeing that continue in Q1. We're seeing that patient traffic for when patients have flu-like symptoms and they go to their doctor and there's the rapid in-office flu test that's used, those who flu test product sales are down in Q1 because again, such a mild season in the patient traffic. So using other products that you normally use when you have a patient flow is also down. It's a temporary thing because the flu season really is the winter months and it ends after Q1. But we are assuming softness related to that. It's a very unusual season, and we just have to build in the reality of that as part of our guidance.

Nathan Rich

Analyst · Goldman Sachs.

Okay. And just really quickly on margins. Just your expectations. There are a number of moving pieces just with the restructuring savings. Do you expect -- in some of the stranded cost like you said. So just curious how we should be thinking about margins for the year.

Steven Paladino

Analyst · Goldman Sachs.

Yes. Look, our long-term goal is to get back to operating margin expansion. I think that we may not get there in 2019 because of stranded cost and some of the other factors that we just discussed. But we do believe longer term, we can get there. So again, 2019 is a little bit of a transitional year with all the spin-off activities that we have to take into consideration.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of John Kreger with William Blair.

John Kreger

Analyst · William Blair.

Stan, you mentioned a few minutes ago that the product is the third of your 3 main goals longer term. Can you just elaborate on that? How do you determine what products you want to own versus you want to partner for? And if we think about your sales, what percentage would you like to get into some sort of kind of a preferred formulary type of structure? And any additional details would be really helpful.

Stanley Bergman

Analyst · William Blair.

It's a very, very good question. I'm glad you asked it. Look, the 3 legs of Henry Schein's strategy for 2018 and '20, the first is to continue to advance our distribution businesses. I can go into details, but that's not related to your question. The second is to continue to invest and expand our presence with value-added services. There are 2 kinds of services. Some are given free or virtually free to customers who give us consumables and equipment business. And others such as the programs of Henry Schein One are charged for. So there, obviously, we want to expand on that platform and we'll connect with suppliers and different partners that are interested in working with us to help us expanding that platform, the profitability of that platform and the connectivity to our customers so that we can be totally interoperable in a unique way. But I think your question is more directed to the third category, it's what we call internally brand equity. The cornerstone of that, of course, is our specialty businesses. We're particularly interested in advancing our oral surgery business that involves implants and bone regeneration materials and using that to be a one-stop shop for all products in oral surgeon or GP in the oral surgery field is -- are using. We are doing quite well in that field. We are gaining market share. We have made some good investments, and we expect to continue to make good investments in that field. The second area will be in the endodontic space. Similar goal. We, of course, will distribute all brand, but we also have our own brands from brushlets to edge and I'm sure others will be added over time. This is a high-margin business for us and presents us with a good opportunity. We will continue to collaborate with those branded manufacturers that will want to collaborate with us where other brands are offered to the Henry Schein channel. And the third is the orthodontic space where we will continue to invest. Again, we're making good progress. We have some good proprietary products in that field, and specifically related to our SLX Clear Aligner system and the whole system around that. And we believe that over time, that will continue to do well. We are receiving very good feedback from our KOLs and from customers in that regard. So the goal is specifically in those areas where we are not really competing with our manufacturers who work with us for distribution. We do not see ourselves being a manufacturer of equipment. And so for example, and so we will focus on areas where we believe the margins are great where we can provide good value to our customers and can combine our own brands with a complete offering of other products to present a one-stop shop.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jon Block with Stifel, Nicolaus.

Jonathan Block

Analyst · Stifel, Nicolaus.

Steve, this one might be for you. I'm sorry, Stanley as well. But I just want to make on the trends if I circle back. And so on the North American trend that you called out that weakened a little bit in November and December, I mean, here we are almost at the end of February. Any color that you can give on how those trended in January and February as well? And then I guess, a quick add-on to that same question will just be also any difference that you saw in general consumables versus specialty? Because I do think specialty has been more resilient in the past. And then I just got a quick follow-up.

Steven Paladino

Analyst · Stifel, Nicolaus.

Sure. So let me answer the second part of your question first. Specialty sales were stronger than core GP sales. In fact, for us, we saw our implant business growth in the 7% range, organic growth in the 7% range, which was strong a number for us. And we also saw another specialties and some nice growth in excess of the recorded growth. What we saw specifically in the U.S. and North American market was that the softness really continued in January, but we did see a really nice pickup so far in February. So we're a little bit optimistic with that pickup because February so far has been very strong, and it's only, call it, 2 weeks into the February months. So that's the color I can provide, and that's both on consumables and equipment. Softness in January continued but a nice turnaround in February for an acceleration of that growth.

Stanley Bergman

Analyst · Stifel, Nicolaus.

Like me just add one other factor. And it's not directly related to Steven's answer per se and maybe your question. But the profitability of Henry Schein One and the profitability of our specialty businesses are significantly higher than distribution business. So although the impact of top line our growth in these businesses may not be that material or not be obvious, the bottom line increase is quite important. And in fact, even if we don't have much growth and we expect to have a lot of growth, the profitability increase in these businesses is very, very good. So the opportunity to have growth in operating margin and bottom line profitability or operating income profitability from Henry Schein One and the specialty businesses is, of course, therefore, disproportionate to the sales growth of the distribution businesses.

Jonathan Block

Analyst · Stifel, Nicolaus.

Okay, fantastic. And just as a follow-up question is it sort of built on maybe Nathan's from earlier. But just longer term, Steven, the up margin goal for the company, you talked about why it may be flat. This year, you've got some stranded costs, you've got some FX headwinds. But when we look at longer term, you used to talk about 20 bps of O&M expansion for the legacy co. Do you see you that as sort of recapture 20 bps longer term? Does it even work beyond that as Stanley, to your point, you made some acquisitions and bolt-ons in some of these higher-margin business such as specialty Henry Schein One, et cetera?

Steven Paladino

Analyst · Stifel, Nicolaus.

Sure, John. You're correct. We do feel confident longer term to get back to operating margin expansion. Again, this is a little bit of a transition year, 2019, because of the spin-off and other activities. That does not assume any major shift in sales next to higher margin. We're still targeting that longer-term margin expansion of 20 bps. But if the shift is greater through acquisitions, that could accelerate 20 bps to a higher number. So we still feel like that's a model that we can continue to achieve. We just have to get through 2019 in this transitional year.

Stanley Bergman

Analyst · Stifel, Nicolaus.

And of course, our guidance to add on, Steve, does not include any acquisitions. We cannot, of course, commit to any acquisitions until the paper is signed. But we will be investing quite heavily in these 2 legs of higher margin. One is Henry Schein One. It's a tremendous platform and a great way to add additional services, additional geographies to the Henry Schein One platform. Lots of opportunity there for margin expansion. And likewise, in the specialty areas where we can remain excited and think that we have opportunity to continue to grow market share in a market that is quite healthy.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Kevin Ellich with Craig-Hallum.

Kevin Ellich

Analyst · Craig-Hallum.

I guess, Steve, you gave us some nice color on the softness that you saw in the dental market in North America and kind of how it's balanced here in February. But were you ever able to pinpoint what caused the softness? I mean, is it really just kind of a resetting also, what market growth is for the market?

Steven Paladino

Analyst · Craig-Hallum.

It's difficult to answer with precision. We did see the large corporate accounts grow faster than the independent customers. We didn't see anything specific geographically or regionally. And obviously, it was related to patient traffic and utilization. So again, we're trying to continue to do analytics on that, but it's difficult to understand with precision. So again, reflected in our guidance is a continued slightly softer market expectations that will continue. Again, we still feel we can grow. Assuming we achieve our guidance of high single digits, 7% to 9% growth in this environment, and the opportunity for that accelerate over time with acquisitions, other activities and maybe even a little bit of help from the end markets. And we feel that, that's something that will continue to deliver shareholder value for our shareholders.

Kevin Ellich

Analyst · Craig-Hallum.

That's helpful. And then Stan, when we think about your growth strategy, and you guys give some color on higher-margin equipment in digital areas that you want to get into, can you talk geographically about the emerging markets? You mentioned China as a big opportunity. Kind of will you build that organically? Or do you think an acquisition is more of the right way to go about building in the emerging markets?

Stanley Bergman

Analyst · Craig-Hallum.

It's a very good question, Kevin. Of course, the emerging markets are growing rapidly off a smaller base. The answer is slightly different per country. China now, we've been there for almost a decade and feel very comfortable now that we have the right infrastructure, financial and regulatory and legal to advance. We have a $60 million business. We will close shortly on another $14 million, and we will continue to grow organically. It's a great platform, by the way, to advance our implant businesses, which is doing quite well with us in China. So it's going to be, in China, a combination of organic growth and expanding the platform so that we have good distribution throughout China. Brazil, for example, which is now a nice business for us, we put together the #1 and #2 player. They went through last year the integration process. And I expect that we will continue to have good growth and profitability in Brazil. I expect that there will also be some acquisition opportunities and specifically in the specialty areas as well. We have a small operation in South Africa, which is an opportunity to expand north. Although it's not a huge market, it's a growing market. And in other parts of Asia, for example, Thailand, you may ask why we went to Thailand. We just found a good company. Those opportunities advance our business in the Southeast Asian region and specifically, we think in the digital area, where we have some good capability and combined with our oral surgery program. So I can talk about other countries as well, but those are the key areas that we're focused on today. And see, these are good markets growing. We see good opportunity to take our products that we have and know-how that we have and take advantage of markets that are healthy and growing.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of David Larson with SVB Leerink.

David Larsen

Analyst · SVB Leerink.

Can you talk about Henry Schein One product? And you keep mentioning demand generation tools and being able to drive traffic to the dental offices. I think you also mentioned there is $400 million of sales. What exactly are those tools? And how permeated is the solution into like your dental base? Can you reach all of your dental clients now or not? And sort of how do you expect that penetration to progress over time?

Steven Paladino

Analyst · SVB Leerink.

Sure. So I'll give a little bit of color. One of the things that I would invite people, we have had some people, some investors go out to our technology center in Salt Lake City and the people would like to get a demo and -- of the technology and the software that drives this, we can set something up. But quickly in summary, we have a number of terrific products now with the creation of Henry Schein One that drive patient communications that are effectively smart communications to be able to go to patients and communicate with them and get them back into a dental office for treatment plans that have not been performed or to get them back in the office because they've been away for too long. We believe that the average dental office might have close to a year's worth of billings for treatment plants that were diagnosed when patients have not returned. We could also include in there, we have some certain products with Henry Schein One that can help with either patient financing as well as some insurance programs that could help those patients if it's partly a financial issue to get those services performed. So it's really detailed and smart patient communications to bring those customers, those patients back into the dental office. We've seen success. It's a service, it's a monthly service that dental practices will buy monthly and effectively outsource the patient communications to us. And it's been very effective. We also have recording that shows them the effectiveness of what we're doing. And I would say that if you ask any dental practice what the top 3 concerns are, patient traffic and demand is probably in those top 3. So this really addresses something very important to the dental practice and really addresses the value of Henry Schein that we're more than just, again, a rigid supply of products from point A to point B. Yes, we do that better than anyone else and we're very efficient at that. But we provide so many other services, and this is just one of those. So hopefully, that helps with a little bit of color. Again, if everyone likes to get detailed demos of those products, we can try to set something up. Maybe we can even do something remote where people can call into a webinar of sorts.

Stanley Bergman

Analyst · SVB Leerink.

In the general enterprise systems that we offer, for small practices, midsize practices, large practices, U.S. government, for example, military, the PA, these are all customized solutions that are very, very effective in managing the practice per se but helping with clinical outcomes.

David Larsen

Analyst · SVB Leerink.

Okay. And then just in terms of like traffic volume to dental offices, do you think the nature of the stock market and the S&P 500 has anything to do with that? Like if people see the market pulling in and late in the year, they're less inclined to have services performed, and if the market comes back and they see the value of their savings rising and they're more inclined to use sort of their savings to have services? Any correlation there in your mind or not? What do you think?

Stanley Bergman

Analyst · SVB Leerink.

There are so many discussions internally with our salespeople about customers. Everybody has a view. There are people that say that when Christmas and new year sales had caused lost days of activity. There are people and talk about the weather. There are people that do talk about the impact of the stock markets on the consumer and on the enthusiasm of the dentists invest in the practice. I think these things all have short-term impact. But I think in the end, we have to look at how the business performs over any year, 1, 2, 3 years. And I think we are as well positioned as we've ever been to continue to grow EPS. I think the number of 7% to 9% is on the low end, specifically because 2019 is a transition year. There's so much going on. I think we need to be a little cautious, including where is the world economy heading, where is foreign exchange going. But I think once things settle down in 2020 going forward, I think the goals that we set for ourselves at nine to low single digits -- high single digits to low double digits, 9%, 11%, 12% is something that we're comfortable with. I think we're investing in the right areas. We are returning cash that we have into investment. We heavily invest in the first year with expenses because you have a lot of you have a lot of acquisition cost, and some types of businesses, you have to write-down inventory. You have to take amortization charges. So overall, we take this into account. I think our three-pronged strategy is very, very exciting. We have a great theme in place in each one of our businesses really to execute, really to advance organic growth and, of course, ready to deploy capital on an internal competitive basis because we will go to where the returns are the best.

Operator

Operator

We have time for one last question coming from the line of Steven Valiquette of Barclays.

Steven Valiquette

Analyst

Just really two quick clarification questions here. First, when you mentioned that for 2019 that the guidance assumes that the market trends will be in line with recent history, I just want to confirm whether or not you're referring to the softer trends in November or December in particular. And really without getting at it, if we think about just 2019 overall versus 2018 overall dental market, are you assuming similar trend year-over-year or down year-over-year? I just want to sort of clarify your exact comment around that.

Steven Paladino

Analyst

Sure. So I would say it's a little bit down compared to full year 2018. It does reflect the most recent history of a little softness in Q4 that continued into January. Again, so hard to tell how -- whether that's an anomaly or whether that's going to stick around for a couple of few quarters. So we're trying to be a little bit conservative to assume that.

Steven Valiquette

Analyst

Okay, great. And the other one quickly. You mentioned that the $1.1 billion dividend was used initially to pay down some debt. I don't know how current that 8-K was a few weeks ago, but could you give a number how much debt you paid down so far in calendar '19?

Steven Paladino

Analyst

Yes. We used the entire $1.1 billion to pay down in short-term debt that was floating rate debt. It's not in the 8-K because the 8-K only covers 2018. So the proceeds weren't received until early February of 2019. So it's not in the 8-K.

Steven Valiquette

Analyst

So you basically used all of it at this point in 1Q '19 to pay down debt? Okay, great.

Steven Paladino

Analyst

Yes. Okay, good.

Stanley Bergman

Analyst

So I think we need to end the call because we committed to an hour and we've gone over an hour. Sorry for the length of the initial introduction. But of course, we had to put things into perspective. Let me just close, and I really -- a lot of my remarks were included in the response to the second or the last question -- the second to the last question. We're very excited about the future of Henry Schein. We're in the right spot. Wellness and prevention is important and managing health care costs, managing the wellness of the world population. And so I think we are well positioned, and I think our focus on the human side of wellness and prevention is going to pay off nicely for our investors long term. We continue on our path of success. It's been many years, [indiscernible] as a private company and 24th year as a public company. We have great themes. We've got good disciplines within the business. And the Medical and dental customers understand us. Our brand is good. We will continue to provide innovative solutions. We do work on this. We dream about this, think about every day, every hour. And the team is really focused on, as I said, wellness and prevention and enabling our customers across the globe to focus and delivering quality clinical care while actually running a good business. Steven and Carolynne are heading to Chicago this afternoon for the midwinter dental tradeshow, which is one of our biggest dental conventions in North America. Unfortunately, I'm not joining them this year as I recently had a back surgery. It was most successful, but my doctor has advised me not to travel by plane for a month. Rest assured I'm going to be working very hard. And I will be at the IDS. There's a meeting in Chicago and Cologne next month. So I'm in good shape health-wise, and you're in good hands with Steven and Carolynne. Please feel free to visit our booth. I'd be happy to also arrange for a tour of certain software systems and other interesting areas of the Henry Schein story. Again, Steven and Carolynne are ready to answer any questions. If you have further questions specifically, try Carolynne Borders or hit up Investor Relations at 631-390-8105. And of course, if you want to get Steven, too, he's available. I look forward to reporting back to you our first quarter results. Be back in May and very, very excited, as I said, about the future of Henry Schein. Our team is enthusiastic. We've got good plans. And last year was a historical year. We made significant movements, and the team is excited about continuing in the direction as we describe. So thank you for your interest.

Operator

Operator

Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.