Patterson reports lower dental sales in Q4, 2017

Patterson Companies reported lower sales in its dental segment for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2017 and all of 2017.

For the quarter (end-April 29), the company announced an overall slight increase of 0.8% in net sales to $1.4 billion, compared with the same period last year.

However, net sales in the company's dental segment, which represented approximately 42% of total company sales, were $607.3 million, down 8.2% from the same quarter of 2016.

Within the dental segment for the quarter, sales of consumable dental supplies decreased 4.3% and equipment sales declined 16.9%. Other services and products, primarily composed of technical service, parts and labor, software support services, and office supplies, were flat, according to the company.

For fiscal 2017, the company reported that dental sales were down 3.5% from 2016, while company-wide net sales increased to $5.6 billion, up 3.8% from the previous year.