CVS Caremark Corp (CVS) to continue taking its own medicine


CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) is no longer looking for new acquisitions, but rather will focus on assimilating recent acquisitions, Chairman and Chief Executive Thomas Ryan said on Wednesday. While speaking to the Reuters Health Summit in New York (check out the blog for the conference here), Ryan said, "It's most important that we stay focused on the integration, the execution and getting our balance sheet in order, and then we will have the opportunity to look at opportunistic acquisitions."

CVS acquired giant pharmacy benefits manager Caremark in March and continues to integrate recent drugstore chain purchases.

It sounds like the company has its hands full given the amount of M&A work CVS has done over the past couple of years combined with the organic growth the firm is seeing. While fierce competitor, Walgreen (NYSE: WAG), is considering applying the brakes in terms of opening up new doors, CVS is in full-throttle mode right now.
CVS is expanding health services offered in its stores. Ryan said that CVS plans to open about 300 in-store health clinics a year as it targets a total of about 2,500. The company will have about 400 of the MinuteClinics in its stores by the end of the year, he said.

The MinuteClinics, small health clinics run in-store by nurses, are positioned to go head-to-head with similar plans of retailing giant Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYST: WMT).

Combining growth with the synergies to be had by purchasing a PBM, CVS is positioned well to continue its march on growth. The stock is up almost 35% this year while Walgreen has seen its share price sag 13%. It's conceivable that we'll see more than the reported $500 million in synergies the combined CVS Caremark has reported.

As America looks for quick-and-easy-and-cheap healthcare, investors may want to check out a dose of healthy CVS Caremark.

Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund. Author's clients hold positions in CVS as of 11/15/2007.

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