CVS Health hiked its 2025 forecast above Wall Street’s expectations after improving Medicare benefits contributed to a better-than-expected first quarter.
The health care giant said Thursday that it also got a boost from better star ratings for its Medicare Advantage plans, which are privately run versions of the federal government coverage program.
CVS Health and other health insurance providers have been struggling for several quarters now with rising costs from their Medicare Advantage customers. The company’s report Thursday comes a few weeks after rival UnitedHealth slashed its 2025 forecast after dealing with a bigger-than-expected spike in care use.
Overall, CVS Health booked adjusted earnings of $2.25 per share as the company’s profit soared 60% to $1.78 billion in the year’s first quarter. Total revenue climbed 7% to $94.59 billion.
Analysts expect earnings of $1.70 per share on $93.66 billion in revenue for the first quarter, according to the data firm FactSet.
For the full year, CVS Health now expects adjusted earnings to range from $6 to $6.20 per share.
The company forecast in February adjusted earnings of $5.75 to $6 per share. Analysts expect $5.92.
The guidance hike was unexpected so early in the year, Leerink Partners analyst Michael Cherny said in a research note. He added that the company's results showed positive signs across all business segments.
CVS Health Corp., based in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, runs one of the nation’s largest drugstore chains and a huge pharmacy benefit management business that operates prescription drug coverage for employers, insurers and other big clients. It also covers 27 million people through its Aetna insurance arm.
The company also said Thursday that it would leave the Affordable Care Act’s individual marketplaces next year. It currently covers about a million people in that market across 17 states. CEO David Joyner told analysts the company saw no near or long-term path to improving this business after dealing with “continued underperformance.”
Aetna had previously left the ACA’s marketplace in 2017 before eventually returning.
Company shares jumped more 8% to $72.14 at the start of trading Thursday, while broader indexes rose slightly.
The stock has already climbed more than 48% so far in 2025 after sinking over 40% last year. CVS Health’s rough 2024 included several guidance cuts and the resignation of former CEO Karen Lynch.
FILE - The exterior view of a CVS branch is shown on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland (AP) — In the aftermath of a fire inside a Swiss Alpine bar that killed 40 people celebrating the new year, survivors, friends and family members, the region’s top authorities and even Pope Leo have spoken to the public in remarks in French, Italian, German and English, reflecting the tradition of Swiss multilingualism.
Another 119 people were injured in the blaze early Thursday as it ripped through the busy Le Constellation bar at the ski resort of Crans-Montana, authorities said. It was one of the deadliest tragedies in Switzerland’s history.
Investigators said Friday that they believe sparkling candles atop Champagne bottles ignited the fatal fire when they came too close to the ceiling of the crowded bar.
Here’s a look at what people said in the wake of the disaster:
— “I’m looking everywhere. The body of my son is somewhere,” Laetitia Brodard told reporters Friday in Crans-Montana as she searched for her son, 16-year-old Arthur. “I want to know, where is my child, and be by his side. Wherever that may be, be it in the intensive care unit or the morgue.”
— “We were bringing people out, people were collapsing. We were doing everything we could to save them, we helped as many as we could. We saw people screaming, running,” Marc-Antoine Chavanon, 14, told The Associated Press in Crans-Montana on Friday, recounting how he rushed to the bar to help the injured. “There was one of our friends: She was struggling to get out, she was all burned. You can’t imagine the pain I saw.”
— “It was hard to live through for everyone. Also probably because everyone was asking themselves, ‘Was my child, my cousin, someone from the region at this party?’” Eric Bonvin, general director of the regional hospital in Sion that took in dozens of injured people, told AP on Friday. “This place was very well known as somewhere to celebrate the new year,” Bonvin said. “Also, seeing young people arrive — that’s always traumatic.”
— “I have seen horror, and I don’t know what else would be worse than this,” Gianni Campolo, a Swiss 19-year-old who was in Crans-Montana on vacation and rushed to the bar to help first responders, told France's TF1 television.
—“You will understand that the priority today is truly placed on identification, in order to allow the families to begin their mourning,” Beatrice Pilloud, the Valais region's attorney general, told reporters Friday during a news conference in Sion.
Pope Leo said in a telegram Friday to the bishop of Sion that he " wishes to express his compassion and concern to the relatives of the victims. He prays that the Lord will welcome the deceased into His abode of peace and light, and will sustain the courage of those who suffer in their hearts or in their bodies.”
— “We have numerous accounts of heroic actions, one could say of very strong solidarity in the moment,” Cantonal head of government Mathias Reynard told RTS radio Friday. "In the first minutes it was citizens — and in large part young people — who saved lives with their courage.”
— “Switzerland is a strong country not because it is sheltered from drama, but because it knows how to face them with courage and a spirit of mutual help," Swiss President Guy Parmelin, speaking on his first day in the position that changes hands annually, told reporters Thursday.
People bring flowers near the sealed off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during the New Year's celebrations. (AP Photo/ Antonio Calanni)
A woman holding a stuffed animal, whose daughter is missing, gather with others near the sealed-off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during the New Year's celebrations. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
People light candles near the sealed off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during the New Year's celebrations. (AP Photo/ Antonio Calanni)
