CVS profits in 2Q exceed projections by analysts

WOONSOCKET – CVS Caremark Corp. has reported second-quarter profit and sales above the range predicted by analysts, getting a boost from the contributions of Caremark, the pharmacy benefits management company that CVS bought for $27 billion in March.
Net income more than doubled to $723.6 million, or 47 cents a share, from $337.9 million, or 40 cents, a year earlier. Sales increased 96 percent to $20.7 billion, the company said.
CVS said third-quarter per-share earnings will jump as much as 33 percent, and repeated its annual profit outlook. CVS, the second-biggest U.S. drugstore chain, bought Caremark to add mail-order pharmacies to its network of stores. The second quarter was the first to include a full three months of Caremark results.
“Simply put, both businesses are performing well,” John Heinbockel, an analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Co., wrote in a note. The second-quarter results provide “additional confidence in the strategic wisdom of the merger.”
Analysts estimated profit of 46 cents a share, the average of 14 projections compiled by Bloomberg News. Nine analysts estimated sales, on average, of $20.6 billion.