Walgreens July Comp Sales Increase 5.2%

(RTTNews) - Drugstore chain Walgreens (WAG) announced Wednesday that comparable store sales, or sales at stores open for one year or more, grew 5.2 percent in July, with total sales, including stores open less than a year, also increasing 6.1 percent from last year.

The Deerfield, Illinois-based company reported that total sales, including stores open less than a year, grew 6.1 percent to $6.39 billion in the month of July, from $6.02 billion in the same period of last year.

The company's July sales results were negatively impacted by calendar day shifts due to one additional Thursday and one fewer Monday in July 2014 compared to July 2013.

Total comparable store sales also grew 5.2 percent, which had a negative impact of 1.1 percentage point due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months, and 0.4 percentage point due to calendar day-shift.

At the company's pharmacy counters, sales for the month increased 9.5 percent. Comparable store pharmacy sales also increased 7.6 percent, negatively impacted by 1.7 percentage points due to generic drug introductions, and by 0.6 percentage point due to calendar day-shift.

Pharmacy sales accounted for 66.5 percent of total sales for July.

Total prescriptions filled at comparable stores for the month of July increased 3.7 percent, including a 0.6 percentage points negative impact due to calendar shifts.

Total front-end sales in July grew 1.4 percent, and comparable store front-end sales was up 1.1 percent. Customer traffic in comparable stores declined 2.6 percent, while basket size grew 3.7 percent.

During the month of July, Walgreens opened eight stores, including one re-location, and thirty closures. The closures were part of the company's efforts to optimize its asset base by closing a total of 76 drugstores during the second half of fiscal 2014.

For the calendar year-to-date seven-month period, total sales grew 5.9 percent to $44.51 billion from the year-ago period.

For the fiscal 2014 year-to-date eleven-month period, total sales improved 6.0 percent to $70.03 billion from the prior-year period.

WAG closed Monday's regular trading session at $72.11, up $1.08 on a volume of 8.94 million shares.