Express Scripts Holding Co. on Tuesday raised its guidance as
earnings came in better than expected for the June quarter.
Shares increased 2.6% in recent after-hours trading.
Express Scripts, the largest manager of U.S. prescription-drug
benefits, posted a modest revenue increase.
For the year, it expects earnings, excluding items, in the range
of $5.46 to $5.54, up from an earlier range of $5.37 to $5.47 a
share.
For the current quarter, it expects earnings, excluding items,
of $1.41 to $1.45 a share. Analysts had called for earnings of
$1.43 a share.
The number of adjusted claims—a measure that takes into account
monthly prescriptions filled in retail pharmacies and 90-day fills
through the company's mail-order business—fell 1% to 321.2
million.
Express Scripts said in December it had agreed to give preferred
formulary status to AbbVie Inc.'s Viekira Pak hepatitis C drug in
exchange for a discount from AbbVie. In January, CVS Health Corp.
gave preferred formulary status to Gilead Sciences Inc.'s hepatitis
C drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni.
Express Scripts had criticized high prices charged by
Gilead.
Overall, the company reported a profit of $600.1 million, or 88
cents a share, up from $515.2 million, or 67 cents a share, a year
earlier.
Excluding transaction and integration costs and other items,
per-share earnings rose to $1.44 from $1.23.
Revenue increased to $25.45 billion from $25.11 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $1.40 a
share on revenue of $26.15 billion.
Write to Angela Chen at angela.chen@wsj.com
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