CVS Earns Higher Income and Profit



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CVS Health
Corp.

CVS 0.82%

saw a rise in revenues in the last quarter, as the chain of retail pharmacies expanded its network and benefited from the increase in prescription volumes per store.

UK-based Woonsocket's third-quarter revenue was $ 47.3 billion, up 2.4% from the $ 47.2 billion expected by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.

Same store sales increased 6.7%, exceeding the estimate of FactSet, which was 5.4%. Same store pharmacy sales increased 8.7% and comparable order volume increased 9.2%.

The company posted earnings of $ 1.39 billion, or $ 1.36 a share, versus $ 1.29 billion, or $ 1.26 a share, a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted earnings were $ 1.73 per share, while the Refinitiv consensus was $ 1.71 per share.

For 2018, CVS reaffirmed its guidance for adjusted earnings per share of between $ 6.98 and $ 7.08.

Shares, which rose 10.3% in the past 12 months, rose 2.6% to $ 75.58 in trading before the market opened on Tuesday.

Last month, the antitrust authorities of the Ministry of Justice authorized the acquisition of CVS by

Aetna
Inc.

AET 0.57%

after the companies took action to ease the concerns of regulators, brought the deal closer to nearly $ 70 billion. CVS recorded $ 208 million in costs during the last quarter related to the Aetna agreement.

The Ministry of Justice announced at the end of September that Aetna had announced its intention to divest its Medicare drug business

WellCare Health Plans
Inc.

"Fully solve the competition problems of the department."

The merger between CVS and Aetna, which brings together the giant pharmacy chain and the pharmaceutical benefits manager with the third largest health insurer, requires the approval of five more states to complete the transaction. So far, CVS has stated that it has received approval from 23 of the 28 requested states. The transaction should be finalized before Thanksgiving.

"We are well down the other five," said the company Tuesday.

CVS and Aetna operate in very different sectors, with the most direct overlap being the sale of products under the Medicare Prescription Drug Program, known as Part D.

Write to Aisha Al-Muslim at [email protected]

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