People walk into a CVS pharmacy store in New York City in Manhattan.
Shannon Stapleton | Reuters
CVS Health’s fourth-quarter earnings beat Wall Street’s expectations on Tuesday as pharmacy sales boosted and expanded testing and vaccination of Covid-19.
The company’s shares rose 1.4% in market trading.
Here’s what the company ended for the fiscal fourth quarter on December 31, compared to what analysts had expected, based on a survey by Refinitiv among analysts:
- Earnings per share: $ 1.30 adjusted to $ 1.24 expected
- Revenue: $ 69.55 billion versus $ 68.75 billion expected
The pharmacy chain had a fiscal net fourth-quarter revenue of $ 975 million, or 75 cents a share, down from $ 1.74 billion a year earlier, or $ 1.33 per share.
Excluded items earned it $ 1.30 per share, which was $ 1.24 per share higher than expected by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.
Revenue rose to $ 69.55 billion from $ 66.89 billion a year earlier. This is higher than analysts’ expectations of $ 68.75 billion.
Sales in the same store grew by 5.3% during the three-month period compared to the same time a year earlier. They increased by 7.5% in the pharmacy department as the prescription volume increased, but by 1.8% in front of the store, as customers skipped visits and did not have to buy as many flu and cold medicines during the pandemic.
CVS also shared its full annual guidance for the coming financial year. It predicted earnings per share of $ 6.06 to $ 6.22 and annualized earnings per share to $ 7.39 to $ 7.55. Full-year cash flow from operations is estimated at $ 12 billion to $ 12.5 billion.
CVS offers Covid-19 testing in many of its stores. The company said it has conducted about 15 million tests nationwide. It has also produced more than 3 million Covid vaccines in more than 40,000 long-term care facilities. The pharmacy chain and its rival, Walgreens, signed an agreement with the federal government in October to give the shots to staff and residents at nursing homes and relief facilities. It was vaccinated at the facilities in December.
CVS is now taking a bigger role in the administration of Covid vaccines in its stores. Last week, the federal government sent doses directly to stores of retail pharmacies – including CVS locations in 11 states.
Karen Lynch, CEO of CVS, said the chain will increase its focus on offering a wider range of healthcare services, in addition to filling only prescriptions.
“Our goal is to make healthcare more accessible, affordable and simpler,” she said in a news release. “In order to do that, we will accelerate the pace of our progress through targeted investments in key areas that will drive our consumer-oriented strategy.”
With the close on Friday, CVS shares have risen by less than 1% over the past year. The company’s share, which has a market value of $ 97.13 billion, hit a 52-week high of $ 77.23 in mid-January. It closed at $ 74.21 on Friday.
Read the full press release here.
This story is evolving and will be updated.