CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) reported Wednesday fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street’s expectations, boosted by higher sales in its pharmacy benefit management business.
Adjusted EPS proved to be $1.73 per share vs. $1.68 per share Revenue came in at $66.9 billion vs. $63.97 billion expected.
The drugstore chain expects 2020 earnings between $7.04 per share and $7.17 per share.
On an unadjusted basis, CVS earned $1.75 billion, or $1.33 a share, during the three months ended Dec. 31. That compares with a loss of $419 million, or a loss of 37 cents a share, during the same quarter in 2018. Operating income increased by 1.3% in the fourth quarter to $3.8 billion.
CVS’s health benefits business more than doubled in revenue from $6.24 billion during the last three months of 2018 to $17.15 billion during the fourth quarter, thanks largely to its November 2018 acquisition of Aetna.
"As we work to transform the way health care is delivered to millions of Americans, we are driving continued business performance and generating positive momentum across the enterprise," CVS CEO Larry Merlo said.
"As a result of the significant progress we made in 2019, and meeting or exceeding our expectations for the year, we raised our outlook for 2020."
Shares of CVS Health are down 0.5% so far this year, but have risen more than 13% over the last 12 months. They’re up 64 cents Wednesday to $74.49
