A rush to fill medicine cabinets and pantries ahead of the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic helped fuel a surging first-quarter profit for
The outbreak also lifted the health care giant’s insurance business because patients delayed or cancelled some surgeries and used the system less.
But company leaders warned analysts on Wednesday that the pandemic's impact will grow complex as the year evolves. Their stores saw a big drop in business after the quarter ended, as people stayed home while governments issued shelter in place orders.
Patients also stayed out of doctor offices, and that meant the company had fewer new prescriptions to fill. Those numbers will improve as shelter in place orders ease and company stores return to normal hours.
But soaring unemployment rates could hurt the company's insurance business as people lose health coverage with their jobs. And delayed surgeries or procedures that the insurer didn't have to cover in the first quarter will probably be rescheduled later this year.
“The quarterly cadence of earnings is likely to vary from historical patterns,” Chief Financial Officer
In the first quarter, net income jumped 41% to a little more than
Earnings excluding one-time items totalled
Revenue climbed 8% to
Total revenue from the company’s biggest business, its pharmacy benefit management arm, climbed 4% to nearly
The health crisis has forced patients around the country to largely hunker down in their homes and cut down on things like routine trips to the drugstore.
CVS also booked an unusually high 8% rise in sales from the front end — or the area outside the pharmacy — of established drugstores as customers stocked up on health products and other merchandise.
The
Analysts forecast, on average, earnings of
Company shares climbed more than 2% to
_____
Follow
© 2020 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved., source