Drugstore chain, CVS Caremark Corp has said that its earnings have increased 16 per cent during the third quarter of the year as it continued to benefit from the customers it has gained from a dispute with its rival.

CVS Caremark reported a profit of $1.01 billion or 79 cents a share compared to $868 million or 65 cents. Excluding tax adjustments and other items, earnings were up at 85 cents from 70 cents and the revenues of the firm increased 13 per cent to $30.23 billion.

The company has increased its per-share earnings estimate to between $3.38 and $3.41 compared to between $3.32 and $3.33 estimated earlier. The company has increased its estimates four times indicating the importance of keeping the prescription business that was taken away from Walgreen Co.

Walgreen Co had to leave the pharmacy-benefits manager Express Scripts Holding network due to a dispute over a contract rate. Even as Walgreen and Express Scripts resolved their differences, CVS Caremark was expected to gain from the gained customers from the time during which the dispute continued between the two parties.

President and Chief Executive Larry Merlo said, "Our retention of the prescriptions we gained during that impasse has been strong since their dispute was resolved in mid-September. Given what we have seen to date, we are optimistic that we will exceed our initial retention goal for the fourth quarter and now expect to retain at least 60%."