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CVS posts 1Q record
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May 2, 2001: 2:04 p.m. ET
Drugstore chain meets forecasts but expansion to crimp 2Q profits
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - CVS Corp. Wednesday reported its best quarter ever as the No. 2 U.S. drugstore chain's earnings jumped 16 percent, meeting forecasts on Wall Street.
But the company's stock plunged after the company warned it would fall short of second quarter estimates as it carries out store expansion into new markets.
Chief Financial Officer David Rickard said in a conference call Wednesday that CVS (CVS: down $3.19 to $56.50, Research, Estimates) anticipated second quarter earnings of 52 or 53 cents a share. Analysts on average had expected 54 cents a share, according to earnings tracker First Call.
Rickard also projected sales at stores open at least a year, a key gauge known as same-store sales, to climb 9 to 11 percent in the second quarter and said CVS remained on track to achieve full-year earnings of $2.10 a share.
For the first quarter, Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS posted net income of $218 million, or 54 cents a diluted share, in line with estimates of analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call. That was up from $187.5 million, or 47 cents a share, earned a year earlier.
It's also up from the $209.5 million, or 51 cents a share it earned in the fourth quarter of last year, its previous record profit for a quarter.
Total sales rose to $5.4 billion from $4.7 billion.
CVS said same-store sales rose 11.3 percent. Same-store pharmacy sales climbed by 17.6 percent.
"I am very pleased with our first-quarter performance, which reflects solid same-store sales growth and excellent expense control," CVS Chairman Tom Ryan said in a statement.
CVS operates 4,127 stores in 31 states and is second only to Walgreen Co. (WAG: Research, Estimates) in terms of overall drugstore sales. 
- from staff and wire reports
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