CVS Pharmacy at a glance.
A Thomson-Reuters consensus projected CVS' earnings to be 69 cents per share. CVS reported earnings of 70 cents per share.
CVS announced in increase in revenue of 6.7% for Q3 2008 on strong retail sales, in line with analysts' expectations.
CVS announced that the company had achieved record high revenues and profits for the fourth fiscal quarter and the full 2007 year. Quarterly revenue grew from $12.1 billion in 2006 to $21.9 billion in 2007, while full year revenue increased 74.2% from $43.8 billion to $76.3 billion for FY07. This growth was largely due to the incorporation of the acquired operations of Caremark in operating results. Same store sales grew 5.3%, 5.2% and 5.3 for the year in the CVS/pharmacy, pharmacy and front-end divisions respectively.
Same store sales weaker than expected at CVS and WAG, attributed by co. to a weak flu season.
CVS reported significant growth in sales and profits, largely due to the incorporation of newly acquired Caremark's figures. In total, operating income increased 137% from the same quarter in 2006 and sales grew 83% to over $20 billion for the first time in company history. Diluted earnings per share increased 37%.
One of CVS's main competitors, industry leader Walgreen announced a decrease in net profit in its fourth fiscal quarter due to falling profit margins on generic drugs. Despite confidence in earnings targets from CVS management, the poor results at Walgreen sparked concern over CVS's own profit margins.
(CVS -0.71) Two former Caremark board nominees were elected to CVS's board despite significant opposition from major shareholders. Additionally, a Reuters story brought up the fact that six months previous, Caremark was being investigated by federal authorities over possible options backdating. A $5 billion share repurchase on 05/09/07 didn't stop CVS's share price from falling 71 cents over the following two days.
(CVS +2.01) Before the start of trading on May 9th, CVS announced that it earned $408.9 million, up from $329.6 million in the year-earlier quarter. This marks the end of a period of higher expenses related to CVS's recent merger with Caremark, and also reflects Pharmacy same store sales growth of 7.8% and front end same store sales growth of 6.6%.
(CVS +1.39) CVS received a three-year contract to provide retail pharmacy benefit and clinical services for the Blue Cross & Blue Shield federal employee program through 2010. This contract extends CVS's current contract with the government, which CVS said generates about $4 billion in annual revenue.
04/17/07 - 04/18/07: (CVS -0.15) Attorney General Greg Abbott is suing the retail division of CVS/Caremark, CVS/Pharmacy, for dumping confidential patient records in a dumpster behind a CVS/Pharmacy store near Houston, TX.
