Express Scripts Raises Guidance as Earnings Top Views

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 [e-mail]

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