People walk by a CVS Pharmacy store in the Manhattan borough of New York City.
Shannon Stapleton | Reuters
CVS Health on Wednesday lifted its earnings outlook for the year, after beating Wall Street’s expectations for the fiscal second quarter.
The health-care company said it now expects adjusted earnings per share for the full year to come in between $8.40 and $8.60, compared with its earlier estimate of between $8.20 and $8.40.
Shares rose about 3% in premarket trading.
Here’s what the company reported for the three-month period ended June 30, compared with what analysts were expecting, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:
- Earnings per share: $2.40 adjusted vs. $2.17 expected
- Revenue: $80.64 billion vs. $76.37 billion expected
On an unadjusted basis, CVS reported net income of $2.95 billion, or $2.23 per share, higher than the $2.78 billion, or $2.10 per share, a year earlier. Revenue of $80.64 billion likewise marked a year-over-year increase, up from $72.62 billion in the same period in 2021.
The results encompass CVS’s several different slices of the health-care business. It has a huge footprint of drugstores, owns insurer Aetna and pharmacy benefits manager CVS Caremark, and provides patient care through MinuteClinics inside of its stores.
CEO Karen Lynch said the company’s strategy of adding more health services is boosting sales and deepening customer relationships.
“Despite a challenging economic environment, our differentiated business model helped drive strong results this quarter, with significant revenue growth across all of our business segments,” she said in a news release.
Same-store sales increased by 8% compared with the year-ago period, as customers bought Covid at-home test kits and cough, cold and flu medications. That far exceeded an expected drop in same-store sales of 0.3%, according to StreetAccount consensus estimates.
In the pharmacy, same-store sales rose 7.6%. In the front of the store, same-store sales jumped 9.4%.
Total pharmacy claims processed gained 3.9% on a 30-day equivalent basis for the three months ended June 30 compared with the prior year. That was driven by an extended cough, cold and flu season compared with the same quarter in 2021.
While sales increased for the quarter, CVS said in a news release that growth was partially offset by a decline in Covid tests and vaccinations, the introduction of new generic drugs and pressure on pharmacy reimbursements.
It did not report how many Covid shots and tests it administered in the three-month period.
Read the company’s earnings release here.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
