What CVS Health (CVS)'s Guidance Hike and Goodwill Hit Means For Shareholders

• Earlier in December 2025, CVS Health raised its 2025 guidance to at least US$400.00 billion in revenue and higher GAAP operating income, while also flagging an expected US$5.73 billion goodwill impairment tied to its health care delivery assets.
• The combination of upgraded guidance and a very large non-cash impairment highlights how CVS is resetting reported earnings while doubling down on value-based care and its Healthy 2030 sustainability agenda.
• We’ll now examine how this mix of higher guidance and a sizeable goodwill impairment may influence CVS Health’s longer-term investment narrative.

These 15 companies survived and thrived after COVID and have the right ingredients to survive Trump's tariffs. Discover why before your portfolio feels the trade war pinch.

CVS Health Investment Narrative Recap

An investor in CVS Health needs to believe its integrated model of insurance, pharmacy and care delivery can translate scale into durable margins despite reimbursement pressure and elevated medical costs. The raised 2025 guidance and large non cash impairment do not materially change the near term focus, which still centers on stabilizing medical cost trends and improving profitability at Oak Street and the wider Health Care Delivery segment, where execution risk remains high.

The new 2026 guidance, calling for at least US$400.0 billion in revenue and meaningfully higher GAAP operating income, is most relevant here because it underlines CVS Health’s conviction that value based care and integration across Aetna, Caremark and Oak Street can support earnings recovery over time. For investors tracking catalysts, this longer term outlook sits alongside the reset 2025 earnings base shaped by the US$5.73 billion goodwill impairment.

Yet underneath the higher guidance, investors still need to be aware of how persistent reimbursement pressure could...

Read the full narrative on CVS Health (it's free!)

CVS Health's narrative projects $445.1 billion revenue and $8.3 billion earnings by 2028. This requires 5.0% yearly revenue growth and about a $3.8 billion earnings increase from $4.5 billion today.

Uncover how CVS Health's forecasts yield a $92.44 fair value, a 19% upside to its current price.

Exploring Other Perspectives

Five Simply Wall St Community valuations for CVS Health span roughly US$92 to US$224 per share, showing how far apart individual views can be. You see this especially once you weigh those expectations against the risk that persistently elevated medical benefit ratios and margin pressure in Health Care Delivery could hold back the earnings recovery many are implicitly baking in.

Explore 5 other fair value estimates on CVS Health - why the stock might be worth over 2x more than the current price!

Build Your Own CVS Health Narrative

Disagree with existing narratives? Create your own in under 3 minutes - extraordinary investment returns rarely come from following the herd.

• A great starting point for your CVS Health research is our analysis highlighting 4 key rewards and 4 important warning signs that could impact your investment decision.
• Our free CVS Health research report provides a comprehensive fundamental analysis summarized in a single visual - the Snowflake - making it easy to evaluate CVS Health's overall financial health at a glance.

Contemplating Other Strategies?

Our top stock finds are flying under the radar-for now. Get in early:

• Trump has pledged to "unleash" American oil and gas and these 22 US stocks have developments that are poised to benefit.
• The end of cancer? These 29 emerging AI stocks are developing tech that will allow early identification of life changing diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's.
• We've found 13 US stocks that are forecast to pay a dividend yield of over 6% next year. See the full list for free.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com