(Bloomberg) -- CVS Health Corp. will pay $1.9 billion to buyTarget Corp.’s pharmacies and clinics, expanding its reach byadding stores bearing its name inside the U.S. retail chain.

CVS, which already has 7,800drugstores, will acquire Target’s more than 1,660 pharmacies across47 states, renaming them as CVS/pharmacy, the companies said todayin a statement. All new Target stores with pharmacy services willinclude a CVS/pharmacy.

CVS Chief Executive Officer Larry Merlo is spearheading a deeperpush into health care, striking the Target deal less than a monthafter agreeing to acquire nursing-home pharmacy operator OmnicareInc. in a transaction valued at $12.7 billion. TheTarget pharmacies bring the company to new markets includingSeattle, Denver and Portland, Oregon, and will help it reach a goalof operating 1,500 medical clinics by 2017.

Read: Walgreens closing 200 stores

For Target, the sale furthers a strategy to retrench the companyunder CEO Brian Cornell. After taking the reins in August, he movedto shut down the company’s Canadian stores -- less than two yearsafter they were opened -- and slashed jobs at its headquarters inMinneapolis.

Cornell is trying to regain Target’s cachet -- from the dayswhen it was called “Tar-zhay” with a mock French accent - - byrefocusing on what it does best. The idea is to entice shopperswith exclusive merchandise, such as this year’s Lilly Pulitzercollection, and get them to spend more when they visit stores.Operating its own pharmacies didn’t fit into that strategy.

Target has almost 80 clinics that will be rebranded asMinuteClinic, and CVS will open as many as 20 new clinics in Targetstories within three years of completion of the deal. CVS alreadyhas almost 1,000 clinics.

CVS will fund the purchase with debt and reduce its sharerepurchase target for this year to $5 billion from $6 billion. Theacquisition will generate “significant sales and prescriptionvolumes” as well as more operating profit, it said.

The deal may reduce CVS’s adjusted earnings per share in 2016 byabout 6 cents and boost earnings by about 10 cents in 2017 and atleast 12 cents in 2018 and beyond, the company said. That’s basedon an assumption that the purchase is completed near the end ofthis year.

Target’s proceeds from the deal will be about $1.2 billion aftertaxes. It will use the money for “capital priorities, includingshare repurchase.”

CVS and Target also said they would develop five to 10 smallstores over two years, to be called TargetExpress. Each willinclude a CVS/pharmacy.

CVS shares rose less than 1 percent to $103 in early trading,while Target gained less than 1 percent to $80.16.

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