CVS Health to Split Into Two Companies, Separating Pharmacies From Insurance

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CVS Health said on Wednesday, November 4, that it intends to separate into two independent, publicly traded companies, splitting its roughly 9,000 retail pharmacies from its health insurance and pharmacy-benefit operations, the company announced. The decision follows a comprehensive board strategic review, the separation is expected to be completed in the first half of 2028, and Reuters reported the shares rose 1.7% in premarket trading.

One of the two companies, to be referred to as CVS Health in the interim, will hold health insurer Aetna, pharmacy-benefit manager CVS Caremark, CVS Specialty, Oak Street Health and Signify Health, led by David Joyner, its current chairman and chief executive. The other, to be named CVS Pharmacy, will hold the approximately 9,000 pharmacies, mail pharmacy, MinuteClinic including virtual care, and the Health100 technology services business, with Prem Shah, currently group president of CVS Health, as its chief executive. The combined company serves about 87 million pharmacy-benefit plan members and an estimated 37 million people through health insurance, the company said.

The split reverses the conglomerate CVS spent years assembling, most notably its roughly $78 billion acquisition of Aetna in 2018, Reuters reported. The parts are each large businesses in their own right: Reuters reported that the Pharmacy and Consumer Wellness segment generated $139.4 billion in revenue in 2025, the health benefits segment $143.4 billion, and the pharmacy-benefit unit $190.4 billion. Shareholders who today hold one company will hold two, which is why market capitalization, explained in our library, is the starting point for valuing each part on its own. Joyner said the plan was made “from a position of strength, and a focus on the long term,” and Barclays analysts viewed the separation positively, Reuters reported. Readers following breakups on our Corporate America desk will note it also answers years of scrutiny of vertically integrated healthcare companies owning an insurer, a benefit manager and a pharmacy chain at once.

The announcement came alongside third-quarter results in which per-share profit of $2.09 beat the $1.65 average analyst estimate compiled by LSEG, and CVS raised its annual adjusted profit forecast to at least $8.20 despite elevated medical costs, Reuters reported. Upon completion, shareholders will own shares in both companies, the separation is intended to be tax-free to the company and its shareholders for U.S. federal income tax purposes, and both companies are expected to carry a solid investment-grade rating and pay a dividend, the company said. Completion remains subject to final board approval, an effective Form 10 registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and confirmation of the tax-free treatment, and until then CVS will operate as it does today, with no interruption to services.

Educational coverage — not tax or investment advice.