CVS Fills More Prescriptions, Bests Street in 2Q

CVS Caremark (NYSE:CVS) topped second-quarter Wall Street expectations by a hair on Tuesday as demand for pharmacy services ramped up.

However, the Woonsocket, R.I.-based pharmacy chain narrowed its full-year non-GAAP EPS outlook to $3.90 to $3.96, below the consensus view of $3.98 a share.

The softer outlook was attributed to the timing of share repurchases, which are back-half weighted as opposed to occurring ratably throughout the year as first anticipated.

“This timing shift is estimated to dampen the accretive impact on the company's EPS in 2013 by as much as 4 cents per share,” the pharmacy said in a statement.

In the third-quarter, CVS sees EPS between $1.00 and $1.03, above the Street's view of 97 cents.

Shares of CVS ticked slightly higher in early trade to $61.80.

In its most recent quarter, CVS reported net income of $1.21 billion, or 91 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $967 million, or 76 cents. Excluding one-time items, it earned 97 cents, topping average analyst estimates in a Thomson Reuters poll by a penny.

Revenue for the three months ended June 30 increased 1.7% to $31.25 billion from $30.7 billion a year ago, narrowly beating the Street’s view of $31.14 billion.

Sales in the pharmacy services group grew 2% to $377 million, led by a 1.8% improvement in real pharmacy same-store prescription volumes as patients took more trips to the doctors and pharmacy networks claims expanded by 4.1%.