CVS

The health insurer raised its forecast after a solid quarter, but investors focused on the one business so broken it’s forcing a strategic retreat. If you just glanced at the headline numbers from Elevance Health (ELV), a solid beat on revenue and a bigger one on earnings, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a good day. Management even raised its full-year profit forecast. But the stock told a different story, plunging 8.5% by the closing bell. What gives? The market looked straight past the beat and saw a five-alarm crisis in one of the company’s biggest divisions: Medicaid. For a current owner, the quarter puts the company’s “diversified strength” narrative to the test. For a prospective buyer, it raises a critical question: Is the damage in one core segment too deep to ignore, no matter how well the rest of the company is doing? On paper, the results looked fine. Elevance reported adjusted earnings per share of $7.45, sailing past the $6.27 consensus estimate. The company felt confident enough to raise its 2026 adjusted diluted earnings per share guidance to “at least $27.” Other segments are pulling their weight, particularly Medicare Advantage, which is on a path to hit an operating margin of “at least 2% this year.” This is the picture management wants you to see: a well-oiled machine firing on most cylinders. But the market is fixated on the cylinder that has completely seized. The company’s full-year Medicaid operating margin outlook remains a stunningly negative “-1.75%.” More concerning than the loss itself is its stubbornness. Management noted that rate updates from states were actually coming in better than expected, which should have provided some relief. Yet, the forecast didn’t budge. As one analyst on the call essentially asked, “Why isn't there a lift if rates are coming in better?” The silence on that front was deafening, suggesting underlying cost pressures are either worse than acknowledged or simply not under control. When you can’t fix a problem, you get away from it. Elevance announced it “reached a mutual agreement with the District of Columbia to exit the D.C. Medicaid market.” More alarmingly, that’s not a one-off. Management stated they “expect to exit additional Medicaid markets over the next 12-18 months where we do not see a path to sustainable performance.” This action goes beyond trimming the edges, representing a strategic...

Abbott ABT reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $1.31 per share, up 4.0% year over year. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.34%. Sales increased 13.0% year over year to $12.59 billion and surpassed the consensus mark by 0.91%. Comparable sales rose 4.8%, led by Medical Devices, while Cancer Diagnostics delivered double-digit growth. Following the earnings announcement, ABT stock rose 3.2% in pre-market trading today. Medical Devices sales increased 9.0% year over year on a reported basis to $5.85 billion. Comparable sales rose 8.4%, reflecting broad-based demand across several cardiovascular and diabetes-care businesses. Electrophysiology sales climbed 13.4% on a comparable basis, while Rhythm Management and Heart Failure advanced 9.5% and 8.7%, respectively. Diabetes Care sales grew 9.0%, supported by a 9.5% increase in continuous glucose monitor sales. Vascular sales rose 5.1%, while Structural Heart improved 5.7%. Diagnostics sales surged 42.3% on a reported basis to $3.09 billion, reflecting the March 2026 acquisition of Exact Sciences. On a comparable basis, segment sales increased 2.9%. Abbott Laboratories price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Abbott Laboratories Quote Cancer Diagnostics sales totaled $919 million and grew 13.3% on a comparable basis. Performance benefited from mid-teens Cologuard growth and contributions from precision oncology and international operations. Core Laboratory Diagnostics sales rose 3.2%, driven by strength in the United States and Latin America. Rapid and Molecular Diagnostics sales declined 8.0% on a comparable basis. The decrease reflected lower respiratory virus testing revenues compared with the prior-year period. Nutrition sales declined 3.1% year over year on a reported basis to $2.14 billion. Comparable sales fell 3.6%, reflecting lower volumes and the impact of strategic pricing actions implemented in the fourth quarter of 2025. Pediatric Nutrition sales decreased 3.1% on a comparable basis, while Adult Nutrition fell 4.0%. U.S. Nutrition remained particularly weak, with sales down 9.0%. However, total Nutrition revenues improved by $127 million sequentially from the first quarter, supported by pricing initiatives and new product launches. Established Pharmaceutical sales increased 8.4% on a reported basis to $1.50 billion. Comparable growth was 8.7%, extending the segment’s steady expa...

Elevance Health raised its profit forecast and the stock promptly fell. Here’s the one number that explains why investors headed for the exits. On paper, Wednesday looked like a victory lap for Elevance Health (ELV). The company beat second-quarter earnings estimates and raised its full-year profit guidance. You’d normally expect a stock to rally on that kind of news. Instead, shares of ELV dropped 8.5% in a single session, badly lagging peers and the broader market. So what gives? Investors looked straight past the good news and fixated on a single, deeply troubled part of the business: Medicaid. What’s So Wrong With the Medicaid Business? While other segments performed well, management revealed a jarring forecast for its government program for lower-income Americans. The company is holding to its full-year Medicaid operating margin outlook of approximately -1.75%, meaning they expect to lose money on every dollar of revenue from a large part of their portfolio. Management called 2026 the “trough year for our Medicaid margin,” but the market wasn’t in a patient mood. How Bad Is It, Really? Bad enough that the company is starting to walk away. Elevance announced it had reached a “mutual agreement” to exit the D.C. Medicaid market. More pointedly, management stated they “expect to exit additional Medicaid markets over the next 12-18 months where we do not see a path to sustainable performance.” When a company starts shrinking a core business because it can’t find a way to make it profitable, investors get nervous. It signals the problems go beyond a temporary blip in costs to a more fundamental issue with state reimbursement rates and the viability of the business itself. But Didn’t Management Say Rates Were Improving? They did, and that’s the crux of the market’s skepticism. On the earnings call, analysts repeatedly tried to square the circle. One asked why, if state reimbursement rates are getting better, the company isn’t improving its negative margin outlook and is instead talking more about exiting states. The lack of a satisfying answer left a cloud over the entire report. The beat and raise in other areas, like Medicare Advantage, simply wasn't enough to offset the red flags waving over the Medicaid segment. Is this truly the bottom for Elevance’s Medicaid woes, or is shrinking the business the only path back to profitability? What Does The Options Mar...

Danaher Corporation DHR is scheduled to release second-quarter 2026 results on July 21, before market open.The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is pegged at $6.09 billion, which indicates an increase of 2.6% from the year-ago quarter’s figure. The consensus mark for earnings is pinned at $1.84 per share, which has increased a penny in the past seven days. The estimate indicates an increase of 2.2% from the figure reported in the year-ago quarter. The company’s bottom line surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the preceding four quarters, the average beat being 6.7%.Let’s see how things have shaped up for Danaher this earnings season. Strength in the bioprocessing business, driven by an increase in demand for consumables from large pharmaceutical customers in Western Europe and China, is expected to have aided the Biotechnology segment. The segment’s performance is also likely to have benefited from solid momentum in the medical filtration and research consumables business. For the second quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the segment’s total sales is pegged at $1.95 billion, indicating a 5.5% rise from the year-ago reported number.Strength in the clinical diagnostics businesses, led by growth in clinical lab and pathology diagnostics units, is expected to drive the Diagnostics segment’s results. However, softness in the molecular diagnostics business due to sluggish demand for respiratory tests is likely to have been a spoilsport. For the second quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the segment’s total sales is pegged at $2.33 billion, indicating a 0.7% rise from the year-ago reported number.Solid momentum in filtration and consumables businesses is likely to have boosted the performance of the Life Sciences segment in the quarter. For the second quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the segment’s total sales is pegged at $1.79 billion, indicating a 0.8% rise from the year-ago reported number.In June 2026, Danaher acquired Masimo Corp. for $9.9 billion. The addition of Masimo’s advanced sensor technology and AI-enabled monitoring enabled Danaher to enhance its diagnostics portfolio. The buyout is expected to have boosted DHR’s performance during the quarter.However, the escalating costs and operating expenses, due to increasing input costs and product mix changes, are likely to have weighed on DHR’s bottom line in the to-be-re...

Community Health Systems, Inc. CYH is set to report second-quarter 2026 results on July 22, 2026, after the closing bell. The bottom-line estimate is currently pegged at a loss of 18 cents per share on revenues of $2.9 billion. The second-quarter earnings estimate has remained unchanged over the past 60 days. The bottom-line projection indicates a year-over-year decline of 260%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for quarterly revenues implies a year-over-year decrease of 7.5%. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research For 2026, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Community Health's revenues is pegged at $11.56 billion, implying a 7.4% year-over-year decline. The bottom-line estimate projects a loss of 58 cents per share for 2026, calling for a 148.7% year-over-year deterioration. Community Health beat on earnings in two of the trailing four quarters and missed in the other two, delivering an average surprise of 57.6%. This performance is illustrated in the figure below. Community Health Systems, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Community Health Systems, Inc. Quote Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for the company this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy), or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. That’s not the case here. CYH has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% and a Zacks Rank #3 at present. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the Number of hospitals is pegged at 59 compared with 70 in the year-ago period, indicating a 15.7% decline. Similarly, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Licensed beds indicates a 15.3% decrease from the year-ago period’s level. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Patient days indicates 0.2% growth from the year-ago period’s reported numbers. However, the consensus estimate for Adjusted admissions implies a 10.7% decrease from the year-ago period’s figure. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the same-store occupancy rate is pinned at 64.7% compared with 50.8% in the year-ago period, representing a 27.4% increase. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Average length of stay (days) is pinned at4.5 compared with 4.2 in the year-ago period, suggesting a 7.1% increase. Higher occupancy likely provided some support, but lower admissions and a reduced hospital portfolio may have we...

Insurance giant UnitedHealth Group (UNH) is out with its second quarter earnings on Thursday, raising its full-year outlook alongside its reported $112 billion in quarterly revenue. The stock has jumped in Thursday trading. Mizuho Americas healthcare equity strategist Jared Holz takes a closer look at the insurer's stock performance and the role Medicare Advantage had in its figures.

Elevance Health, Inc. ELV reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $7.45, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 20.6%. However, the bottom line declined 15.7% year over year. Operating revenues advanced 0.8% year over year to $49.8 billion. The top line beat the consensus mark by 2.9%. The quarterly results were primarily driven by higher premium yields in the Health Benefits segment and increased CarelonRx product revenues. The upside was partly offset by a decline in overall medical membership and an elevated expense level. Elevance Health, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Elevance Health, Inc. Quote As of June 30, 2026, Medical membership of Elevance Health was around 44.9 million, which dipped 1.5% year over year. The decrease was due to the expected loss of some commercial fee-based customers and a decline in Individual ACA and Medicaid membership. The reported figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 44.8 million and our estimate of 44.5 million. Premiums totaled $41.3 billion in the quarter under review, which remained flat year over year and surpassed our estimate of $39.3 billion. Product revenues grew 3.7% year over year to $6.3 billion, marginally missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.9% and our estimate by 0.5%. Net investment income rose 44.9% year over year to $704 million. The Adjusted operating margin of 3.6% deteriorated 140 basis points (bps) year over year. Total expenses escalated 2.2% year over year to $48.5 billion in the second quarter, higher than our estimate of $46.7 billion. The year-over-year increase was due to higher cost of products sold, operating expenses and interest expenses. The operating expense ratio was 11.1%, which increased 100 bps year over year. The benefit expense ratio increased 80 bps year over year to 89.7%. Health Benefits The unit recorded operating revenues of $42.7 billion in the second quarter, which rose 2.7% year over year and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $41.2 billion as well as our estimate of $40.7 billion. The segment benefited from increased premium yields. The unit recorded an operating gain of $0.9 billion, which fell 43.8% year over year. It also missed the consensus mark of $1 billion. The operating margin deteriorated 170 basis points year over year to 2.1%. Carelon The segment’s operating revenues rose 6.1% year over year to $19.2 billi...

Investing.com -- Elevance Health’s Health Benefits operating profit collapsed in the second quarter of 2026, igniting a broad premarket selloff across the managed-care sector even as the insurer’s headline earnings handily beat estimates and full-year guidance was lifted. Elevance shares are down 6.7% in premarket trade Thursday after the report showed adjusted operating margin fell to 3.6% from 5.0% year-over-year. UnitedHealth Group, which reports its own Q2 results Thursday, saw its shares fall 2.7% in premarket trading, with investors bracing that Elevance’s Medicaid margin deterioration may prove sector-wide rather than company-specific. Molina Healthcare, a pure-play Medicaid insurer, dropped as much as 9% in premarket — the steepest decline among major sector peers — bringing it sharply back from its 52-week high of $244.89 reached as recently as Tuesday’s session. Humana declined roughly 1.7% in premarket, while Centene and CVS Health fell 4.9% and 2.3%, respectively. Elevance posted Q2 2026 revenue of $50.47 billion, up 2.1% year-on-year and beating analyst consensus by 3.9%, while adjusted EPS of $7.45 came in roughly 20% above the $6.21 consensus estimate. Full-year adjusted EPS guidance was raised to at least $27.00. On the surface, those numbers look strong. Beneath them, the picture is considerably more troubling. The headline EPS figure was materially supported by an $0.80 per-share below-the-line benefit that flattered the reported result. Strip that out, and the core insurance business is under significant pressure. The Health Benefits segment, Elevance’s largest, saw operating profit fall nearly half versus the prior year as lagging Medicaid reimbursement rates and an ongoing Medicare Advantage portfolio repositioning squeezed margins. Management had previously guided investors to treat 2026 as a "trough year" for the segment, and the Q2 data validates that warning. With Elevance’s non-recurring below-the-line support and front-loaded profitability, consensus implies a steep deceleration in core earnings power through the second half. Sell-side analysts project revenue to decline 2.3% over the next 12 months, a sharp contrast to the revenue growth posted in Q2. Membership has also been gradually contracting, with the customer base slipping to 44.95 million in Q2 from 45.42 million the prior quarter, even as revenue per member has risen. Pri...

After a rocky start to the year, health insurer stocks have roared back. The insurers are trying to end a difficult cycle that began about three years ago, when healthcare use, and the costs to cover it, accelerated postpandemic. The fund’s top 10 holdings encompass six health insurers, three of which— UnitedHealth Group Aetna parent CVS Health and Elevance Health —comprise more than 40% of the fund.

WOONSOCKET, R.I., July 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- CVS Health® (NYSE: CVS) has announced that its board of directors has approved a quarterly dividend of sixty-six and one-half cents ($0.665 cents) per share on the Common Stock of the Corporation. The dividend is payable on August 3, 2026, to holders of record on July 23, 2026. About CVS HealthCVS Health is a leading health solutions company simplifying health care one person, one family and one community at a time. As of March 31, 2026, the Company had approximately 9,000 retail pharmacy locations, more than 1,000 walk-in and primary care medical clinics and a leading pharmacy benefits manager with approximately 88 million plan members. The Company also serves an estimated more than 37 million people through a broad range of health insurance products and related services. The Company's integrated model uses personalized, technology driven services to connect people to simply better health, increasing access to quality care, delivering better outcomes, and lowering overall costs. Media contactEthan [email protected] Investor contactLarry [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cvs-health-declares-quarterly-dividend-302822832.html

With a market cap of $131.2 billion, CVS Health Corporation (CVS) delivers a wide range of services through its Health Care Benefits, Health Services, and Pharmacy & Consumer Wellness segments. It provides insurance products, pharmacy benefit management, and retail pharmacy services to individuals, employers, and government programs. The Woonsocket, Rhode Island-based company is slated to announce its fiscal Q2 2026 results before the market opens on Wednesday, Aug. 5. Ahead of the event, analysts expect CVS to report an adjusted EPS of $1.86, up 2.8% from $1.81 in the year-ago quarter. It has surpassed Wall Street's bottom-line estimates in each of the past four quarterly reports. Intel Stock Is ‘Too Good to Ignore’ as HSBC Sets a New Street-High Price Target Intel Just Lost a Veteran Employee. It Likely Just Won a Key Catalyst for INTC Stock in the Process. SK Hynix Stock Debuts for U.S. Investors Tomorrow. The DRAM ETF Could Be the Biggest Loser. Stop Missing Market Moves: Get the FREE Barchart Brief – your midday dose of stock movers, trending sectors, and actionable trade ideas, delivered right to your inbox. Sign Up Now! For fiscal 2026, analysts predict CVS Health to post adjusted EPS of $7.44, a 10.2% rise from $6.75 in fiscal 2025. Moreover, adjusted EPS is expected to grow 12.5% year-over-year to $8.37 in fiscal 2027. Shares of CVS Health have surged 57.9% over the past 52 weeks, outpacing both the S&P 500 Index's ($SPX) 20.3% gain and the State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF's (XLV) 18.5% return over the same period. CVS Health shares rose 7.7% on May 6 after the company raised its full-year 2026 adjusted EPS guidance to $7.30 - $7.50 from the prior forecast, with the new midpoint of $7.40 well above analysts' estimate, driven by stronger medical cost controls at Aetna and improved profitability at its Caremark pharmacy benefit manager. The company also reported stronger-than-expected Q1 2026 adjusted EPS of $2.57, revenue increased to $100.4 billion, and Aetna posted a medical loss ratio of 84.6%. Analysts' consensus rating on CVS stock is bullish, with an overall "Strong Buy" rating. Among 24 analysts covering the stock, 20 recommend a "Strong Buy,” two have a "Moderate Buy" rating, and two give a "Hold" rating. The average analyst price target is $107.08, indicating a potential upside of nearly 3% from the current levels. On the date...

This story was originally published on Healthcare Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Healthcare Dive newsletter. CVS’ insurance division Aetna has a finally gotten a handle on medical spending after a turbulent few years, according to the healthcare giant’s chief executive. “We’ve got, I think, our arms around how to project and predict where healthcare costs are going, and making sure we’re pricing our products accordingly,” CVS CEO David Joyner said at an event hosted by the Economic Club in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. Joyner’s comments — which come about a month before CVS is scheduled to report second quarter results — are likely a welcome signal for investors that Aetna can continue recent progress on controlling spending. Insurers began to see unexpected increases in costs starting in late 2023 and early 2024, especially for seniors in privatized Medicare Advantage plans. CVS was particularly hard-hit by the trend, given the company had significantly increased its MA benefits in order to nab new members — a gamble that backfired hard in the face of higher spending. Aetna reported a $984 million operating loss in 2024, compared to income of $3.9 billion the year prior. The division’s struggles almost halved CVS’ total net income that year. As Aetna’s performance flatlined, CVS’ board replaced then-CEO Karen Lynch with Joyner, a company veteran serving as the head of CVS’ pharmacy benefit manager Caremark at the time. Joyner’s No. 1 focus was to improve operations at Aetna, the CEO has said. 2025 showed some early proof of a turnaround, after CVS rejigged its MA business by slashing benefits and exiting unprofitable markets. Those efforts helped Aetna spring back into the black, with the division reporting operating income of $1.8 billion last year. CVS again scaled back its MA offerings and exited the Affordable Care Act market entirely for 2026 in order to control rising costs. Still, investors remained wary that CVS’ troubles were entirely behind it, citing the difficulty of adequately forecasting medical spending after the pandemic threw normal utilization trends into disarray. Yet Aetna has posted solid operational performance in 2026 so far, with executives promising that they have taken an adequately disciplined approach to bid pricing and benefit structure to cover medical trend this year. CVS hiked its 2026...