CVS Caremark (CVS) is one of the leading pharmacy healthcare providers in the United States. There have been major changes due to significant merger and acquisition activity within the pharmacy benefit management industry that stands to benefit CVS. This high-quality healthcare juggernaut is currently trading at a historically attractive valuation. Therefore, we feel it represents a strong candidate for the prudent investor seeking a combination of above-average growth and a moderate and growing dividend yield.

This article looks at CVS Caremark Corp (CVS), a Dividend Challenger, through the lens of the F.A.S.T. Graphs™ Fundamentals Analyzer Software Tool. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, the reader will be provided the "essential fundamentals at a glance" expressed vividly in pictures. In order to provide you the opportunity to research this company deeper and faster we are providing a link to a live, fully functioning earnings and price correlated set of graphs Found Here. (Tip: Run your mouse over the various lines and watch the graphs come to life).

A Dividend Challenger is defined as a company that has increased its dividend every year for 5-9 straight years. CVS Caremark Corp is a Dividend Challenger that has raised its dividend every year for 9 consecutive years. The complete Dividend Challengers list is compiled courtesy of David Fish. (Open as an excel spreadsheet and look at the tabs on the bottom to find the Dividend Challengers list).

About CVS Caremark Corp: from their website

"CVS Caremark is the largest pharmacy health care provider in the United States with integrated offerings across the entire spectrum of pharmacy care. We are a pharmacy innovation company, uniquely positioned to engage plan members in behaviors that improve their health and to lower overall health care costs for health plans, plan sponsors and their members. CVS Caremark is a market leader in mail order pharmacy, retail pharmacy, specialty pharmacy, and retail clinics, and is a leading provider of Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans. As one of the country's largest pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs), we provide access to a network of more than 65,000 pharmacies, including more than 7,300 CVS/pharmacy® stores that provide unparalleled service and capabilities. Our clinical offerings include our signature Pharmacy Advisor™ program as well as innovative generic step therapy and genetic benefit management programs that promote more cost effective and healthier behaviors and improve health care outcomes."

CVS Caremark Corp: A Dividend Challenger with 9 Consecutive Years of Dividend Increases

Learning from the Past - Looking at Earnings Only

Since dividends are paid out of earnings, a clear perspective of a company's historical earnings growth record is a vital component of a dividend investor's prudent due diligence process. The following graph plots CVS Caremark Corp's earnings per share since 1998. A quick glance to the right of the graph shows that CVS Caremark Corp has increased earnings at a compounded rate of 12.8% (see purple circle on graph) per annum.

Earnings Determine Market Price and Dividend Income: The following earnings and price correlated F.A.S.T. Graphs™ clearly illustrates the importance of earnings to both price movement and dividend income. The earnings growth rate line or True Worth ™ line (orange line with white triangles) is correlated with the historical stock price line. On graph after graph the lines will move in tandem. If the stock price strays away from the earnings line (over or under), inevitably it will come back to earnings.

Since dividends are paid out of earnings, and therefore represent additional return on top of what the market capitalizes earnings at, they are depicted by the light blue shaded area and stacked on top of the earnings line. Therefore, a quick visual of these two important components is simultaneously revealed:

1. The additional return that dividend paying stocks provide.

2. The percentage of earnings paid to shareholders as dividends (payout ratio).

The value in this article is through carefully analyzing the earnings and price correlated fundamentally based graphs. Notice that one glance tells you how well the company has performed on an operating basis historically and how the market valued that historical performance. Therefore, the reader is free to discover whether or not current valuations make sense based on historical norms coupled with fundamental values. Instead of opinion, this article is designed to produce facts that can be analyzed to the readers investing benefit.

Performance Table: Capital Appreciation and Dividend Income CVS Caremark Corp

The associated performance results, with the earnings and price correlated graph, validates the above discussion regarding the two components of total return: Capital appreciation and dividend income. Dividends are included in the total return calculation and are assumed paid, but not reinvested.

When presented separately like this, the additional rate of return a dividend paying stock produces for shareholders becomes undeniably evident. In addition to the 7.3% capital appreciation (Closing Annualized ROR), long-term shareholders of CVS Caremark Corp would have received an additional $17,244.05 in dividends that increased their total return from 7.3% to 7.7% per annum.

(Note: Since this is a Dividend Challenger it has raised its dividend every year for at least 5-9 years, therefore, negative dividend growth rates shown, if any, will be attributed to special additional dividends paid in excess of the company's regularly reported dividend rate)

The following graph plots the historically normal PE ratio (the dark blue line) correlated with 10-year Treasury note interest. Notice that the current price earnings ratio on this quality company is as low as it has been since 1998.

A further indication of valuation can be seen by examining a company's current price to sales ratio relative to its historical price to sales ratio. The current price to sales ratio for CVS Caremark Corp is .53, which is historically low.

Looking to the Future

Extensive research has provided a preponderance of conclusive evidence that future long-term returns, and the dividend and its growth rate are a function of two critical determinants:

1. The rate of change (growth rate) of the company's earnings

2. The price or valuation you pay to buy those earnings

Therefore, forecasting future earnings growth, bought at sound valuations, is the key to safe, sound, and profitable performance.

Therefore, it logically follows that measuring performance without simultaneously measuring valuation is a job half done. At its current price, which is attractively aligned with its True Worth™ valuation, CVS Caremark Corp represents a potential opportunity to invest in a Dividend Challenger at a reasonable price. The important factor is that CVS Caremark Corp has real assets and cash flow underpinning its stock price. This solid economic foundation offers shareholders the potential for both a strong margin of safety and an opportunity for an increasing dividend income stream and potentially attractive future returns.

The Estimated Earnings and Return Calculator Tool is a simple yet powerful resource that empowers the user to calculate and run various investing scenarios that generate precise rate of return potentialities. Thinking the investment through to its logical conclusion is an important component towards making sound and prudent commonsense investing decisions.

The consensus of 21 leading analysts reporting to Capital IQ forecast CVS Caremark Corp long-term earnings growth at 13%. CVS Caremark Corp has low long-term debt at 19% of capital. CVS Caremark Corp is currently trading at a P/E of 15.5, which is inside the value corridor (defined by the five orange lines) of a maximum P/E of 18. If the earnings materialize as forecast, CVS Caremark Corp's True Worth valuation would be $90.49 at the end of 2017, which would be a 14.8% annual rate of return from the current price, including assumed dividends.

Earnings Yield Estimates

Discounted Future Cash Flows: All companies derive their value from the future cash flows (earnings) they are capable of generating for their stakeholders over time. Therefore, because Earnings Determine Market Price and dividend income in the long run, we expect the future earnings of a company to justify the price we pay.

Since all investments potentially compete with all other investments, it is useful to compare investing in any prospective company to that of a comparable investment in low risk Treasury bonds. Comparing an investment in CVS Caremark Corp to an equal investment in 10-year Treasury bonds illustrates that CVS Caremark Corp's expected earnings would be 7.1 times that of the 10-Year T-Bond Interest. (See EYE chart below). This is the essence of the importance of proper valuation as a critical investing component.

This report presents essential "fundamentals at a glance" on Dividend Challenger CVS Caremark Corp, illustrating the past and present valuation based on earnings achievements as reported. Future forecasts for earnings growth are based on the consensus of leading analysts. Although with just a quick glance you can know a lot about the company, it's imperative that the reader conduct his or her own due diligence in order to validate whether the consensus estimates seem reasonable or not. Follow the link we provided at the beginning of this article to a fully functioning F.A.S.T. Graphs™ on CVS Caremark Corp.

Summary & Conclusions

CVS Caremark Corp appears to be very well-positioned for long-term growth that can be purchased at an attractive valuation. The demographic makeup of our aging population indicates a large and consistent market for their offerings. Furthermore, we believe that CVS Caremark Corp offers solutions to the healthcare critical issues that is facing us all. Therefore, we feel that this company could provide profitable growth even under potentially more stringent healthcare policies. Therefore, we believe this represents an attractive choice at a sound valuation for the investor seeking growth and a rising income stream. We feel that prospective investors should conduct their own due diligence before taking a position.

Disclosure: No positions at the time of writing.