CVS tops profit estimates with new pharmacy-services customers

CVS CAREMARK CORP. reported second-quarter net income of $1.25 billion, an increase of 11 percent over the $1.12 billion reported a year earlier.
CVS CAREMARK CORP. reported second-quarter net income of $1.25 billion, an increase of 11 percent over the $1.12 billion reported a year earlier.

WOONSOCKET – CVS Caremark Corp., the biggest provider of prescription drugs in the U.S., reported profit that beat analysts’ estimates after adding new customers in its pharmacy services business.

Second-quarter net income rose 11 percent to $1.25 billion, or $1.06 a share, from $1.12 billion, or 91 cents, a year earlier, the Woonsocket-based company said Tuesday in a statement. Excluding one-time items, earnings were $1.13 a share, 3 cents above the average of 21 estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

CVS operates retail pharmacies as well as a unit managing patients’ prescription drug benefits. Pharmacy benefit managers have been facing increasing drug prices from expensive new treatments, even as they add more customers from an expansion of insurance under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

CVS’s total revenue rose 11 percent to $34.6 billion, with a 16 percent gain in the pharmacy benefit management unit and a 4.5 percent rise by retail stores. Same-store sales rose 3.3 percent, despite the company no longer selling cigarettes in its retail locations.

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On a year-to-date basis, revenue climbed 8.5 percent to $67.3 billion while net income rose 14.3 percent to $2.4 billion, or $2.03 per share.

The company said Tuesday it would raise and narrow its guidance for full-year 2014 earnings to between $4.43 and $4.51 per share, compared with its previous estimate of between $4.36 and $4.50 per share.

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