5 Largest Retailers in the US in 2022

4. CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS)

Market Cap: $129.93 billion

Headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) is a major healthcare service provider, operating pharmacy chains across the United States. The company has expanded its services since 2018 after its acquisition of Aetna. The company operates about 10,000 retail drugstores in the United States.

CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) posted sales of $290 million in 2021, up 8.5% from $267.9 million in 2020. Moreover, the company has been performing well in 2022, and recently the company announced Q3 2022 results, in which the management raised its full-year EPS guidance and now expects a full-year adjusted EPS of $8.55 to $8.65 compared to the previous expectation of $8.40 to $8.60.

Vitava Funds mentioned the company in its Q3 2022 investor letter. Here is what the fund said:

We took advantage of this in the summer of 2020 and brought the stock into our portfolio at a time when its price was pressed down still further by the coronavirus pandemic. CVS is a giant. It has revenues of USD 300 billion, making it one of the largest companies in the world. It is a relatively stable and highly profitable company with strong free cash flow. Over the past few years, CVS has focused primarily on reducing debt.

This is already much lower than it had been after the Aetna acquisition, and most of the cash is now likely to go to shareholders through share buybacks or be used for smaller acquisitions to grow the company further. CVS trades at about 11 times annual earnings, which is a very appealing valuation given the expected future growth in profitability and overall modest cyclicality in its business.