CVS Caremark Corp.'s (CVS) second-quarter profit rose 15% amid revenue gains at its pharmacy-benefits business, prompting the drugstore chain to raise its 2009 earnings outlook.

It now expects $2.59 to $2.64 a share. In May, an uptick in its PBM business prompted CVS to raise its target slightly to $2.55 to $2.63. The upbeat results provided more evidence that the drugstore chain's $27 billion purchase of pharmacy-benefits manager Caremark in 2007 may be paying off, until recently a big investor concern.

CVS' retail sales are being helped by its Maintenance Choice program, which allows PBM customers to pick up 90-day prescriptions at a CVS instead of receiving them through the mail, for the same price. Many PBMs require patients to receive long-term prescriptions through the mail, a method that is more profitable than filling the prescription in-store.

The company's same-store sales jumped 6.1% in the quarter, much stronger than the rest of the industry, with growth of 7.5% at the pharmacy.

Maintenance Choice also helped the pharmacy-services segment, whose revenue jumped 22% as processed claims rose 8.8%.

CVS's second-quarter profit increased to $886.5 million, or 60 cents a share, from $774.8 million, or 53 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding acquisition-related costs, earnings rose to 65 cents a share from 60 cents.

Revenue rose 18% to $24.9 billion, in part on the acquisition of Longs.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting earnings, excluding items, of 64 cents a share on revenue of $24.41 billion.

Gross margin fell to 20.3% from 20.7%.

Shares closed Monday at $34 and were inactive premarket. The stock is up 18% this year.

-By Mike Barris, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2330; mike.barris@dowjones.com;