CVS Health Corp (NYSE:CVS) stock rose 1.15% (As on Feb 10, 11:31:56 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company’s fourth quarter earnings that beat analysts’ forecasts and revenue that topped expectations but It did not raise a 2022 forecast it laid out in December. Vaccines that boosted fourth quarter sales could drop as much as 80% in the new year, and company executives expect a decline in in-store diagnostic testing as well. Plus they don’t know if there will be another surge in cases or another round of vaccine boosters in 2022. The pandemic’s impact was clear in the recently concluded fourth quarter, which saw CVS Health’s profit jump 34% to $1.31 billion compared with the final quarter of 2020. The largest revenue generator for CVS, the pharmacy benefit management business, processed more pharmacy claims due partly to COVID-19 vaccinations and an increase in new prescriptions compared to the final quarter of 2020. Vaccines had just started rolling out at the end of 2020, and many people were still staying home and trying to avoid the virus by staying away from doctor’s offices that generate those prescriptions.

Further, the company administered more than 20 million COVID-19 vaccines in the quarter, as customers sought boosters and eligibility expanded to children in the United States. Demand for COVID-19 tests customers could buy over the counter, or without a prescription, also spiked in the fourth quarter as the omicron variant of the virus surged. CVS Health sold 22 million of those tests last year, and 70% of those sales came in the fourth quarter.

CVS in the fourth quarter of FY 21 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $1.98, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $1.82. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 10.1 percent to $76.6 billion in the fourth quarter of FY 21, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $75.63 billion. Adjusted operating income increased 40.8% and 8.1%, respectively, primarily due to increased prescription and front store volume and the administration of COVID-19 vaccinations in the Retail/LTC segment, improved purchasing economics and growth in specialty pharmacy in the Pharmacy Services segment, as well as gains from anti-trust legal settlements of $126 million and $263 million recorded in the three months and year ended December 31, 2021, respectively.

CVS Health for fiscal 2022, confirmed Adjusted EPS guidance range of $8.10 to $8.30 and revised cash flow from operations guidance range to $12.0 billion to $13.0 billion from $12.5 billion to $13.0 billion.