Walgreen August Comps. Up 4.8% - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Drugstore chain Walgreen Co.(WAG) reported that its comparable stores sales for the month of August 2013 increased by 4.8 percent. The company said calendar day shifts negatively impacted total comparable sales by 1.2 percentage points, while generic drug introductions in the last 12 months negatively impacted total comparable sales by 0.8 percentage point.

Sales for the Month were $6.17 billion, an increase of 5.6 percent from $5.84 billion in the same month in fiscal 2012.

Total front-end sales increased 3.9 percent compared with the same month in fiscal 2012, while comparable store front-end sales increased 2.2 percent. Customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 1.5 percent while basket size increased 3.7 percent.

Prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased by 5.6 percent in August and increased 7.4 percent on a calendar day-shift adjusted basis. This year's August had one additional Saturday and one fewer Wednesday compared with August 2012. These calendar shifts negatively impacted prescriptions filled at comparable stores by 1.8 percentage points.

In addition, the company said comparable store sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 increased 4.5 percent (4.9 percent day-fall adjusted), while front-end comparable store sales for the quarter increased 1.7 percent. Total sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 were $17.95 billion, up 5.1 percent from $17.07 billion in last year's quarter.