Express Scripts Holding Co. on Tuesday raised its guidance as earnings came in better than expected for the June quarter.

Shares increased 2.6% in recent after-hours trading.

Express Scripts, the largest manager of U.S. prescription-drug benefits, posted a modest revenue increase.

For the year, it expects earnings, excluding items, in the range of $5.46 to $5.54, up from an earlier range of $5.37 to $5.47 a share.

For the current quarter, it expects earnings, excluding items, of $1.41 to $1.45 a share. Analysts had called for earnings of $1.43 a share.

The number of adjusted claims—a measure that takes into account monthly prescriptions filled in retail pharmacies and 90-day fills through the company's mail-order business—fell 1% to 321.2 million.

Express Scripts said in December it had agreed to give preferred formulary status to AbbVie Inc.'s Viekira Pak hepatitis C drug in exchange for a discount from AbbVie. In January, CVS Health Corp. gave preferred formulary status to Gilead Sciences Inc.'s hepatitis C drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni.

Express Scripts had criticized high prices charged by Gilead.

Overall, the company reported a profit of $600.1 million, or 88 cents a share, up from $515.2 million, or 67 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding transaction and integration costs and other items, per-share earnings rose to $1.44 from $1.23.

Revenue increased to $25.45 billion from $25.11 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $1.40 a share on revenue of $26.15 billion.

Write to Angela Chen at angela.chen@wsj.com

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