CVS Caremark Tops Q2 Profit, Misses on Revenue

by Christopher Freeburn | August 7, 2012 12:08 pm

Real America Index[1]CVS Caremark (NYSE:CVS[2]) announced on Tuesday a second-quarter profit[3] of $966 million, up 18.4% from $816 million in the same period last year.

For the quarter, the drug store chain and pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) recorded revenue of $30.71 billion, up 16% compared to last year. But that missed the $31.02 billion that Wall Street was looking for, the Associated Press noted.

Adjusted EPS for the quarter was 81 cents, which topped the 79 cents analysts had forecast.

The company raised its earnings outlook for the full year from an earlier forecast of between $3.23 and $3.33 a share, to a range of between $3.33 and $3.38 a share. Wall Street anticipates 2012 earnings of $3.33 a share for CVS Caremark.

Investors were not impressed, however. CVS Caremark shares slipped more than 1% in Tuesday mid-day trading.

Revenue for the company’s chain of retail drug stores increased 7% during the quarter to $15.8 billion, with sales at stores open at least a year rising 5.6%. Revenue from its PBM business soared 28% to $18.4 billion. CVS Caremark’s PBM business was boosted by last year’s merger with Universal American.

Company officials indicated that the business had added between 6.5 million and 7 million prescriptions for CVS pharmacies, largely comprised of former Walgreen (NYSE:WAG[4]) customers who left that chain in the wake of its temporary split from Express Scripts (NASDAQ:ESRX[5]). The company said it believed it could hold on to most of those customers once Walgreen and Express Script resume business in September.

Aetna is part of InvestorPlace‘s Real America Index[6], a list of companies — one from each state — whose performance provides a window on the health of the U.S. economy. CVS Caremark represents the state of Rhode Island[7] in the index.

Endnotes:

  1. [Image]: https://investorplace.com/real-america-index/rhode-islands-cvs-caremark-the-king-of-pharmacy/
  2. CVS: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=CVS
  3. a second-quarter profit: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_EARNS_CVS_CAREMARK?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-07-07-31-39
  4. WAG: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=WAG
  5. ESRX: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=ESRX
  6. InvestorPlace‘s Real America Index: https://investorplace.com/real-america-index/
  7. CVS Caremark represents the state of Rhode Island: https://investorplace.com/real-america-index/rhode-islands-cvs-caremark-the-king-of-pharmacy/

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2012/08/cvs-caremark-tops-q2-profit-misses-on-revenue/