Walgreens March Sales Up, Front-end Sales Decline - Update

(RTTNews) - Drugstore chain Walgreen Co. (WAG) Thursday said its comparable store sales or sales at stores open for one year or more grew 3.5 percent in March, with 4.5 percent increase in total sales.

Total front-end sales decreased 2.6 percent in March, with comparable store front-end sales decline of 3.4 percent, as Easter falls on April 20 this year compared with March 31 last year.

Calendar day shifts positively impacted total comparable sales by 0.6 percent. Generic drug introductions in the last 12 months negatively impacted total comparable sales by 1.0 percentage point, while the lower incidence of flu negatively impacted total comparable sales by 0.2 percentage point.

Customer traffic in comparable stores fell 4.0 percent while basket size increased 0.6 percent.

Total sales, including stores open less than a year, were $6.43 billion in March, up 4.5 percent from $6.16 billion in the same month last year.

According to the company, prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased by 5.1 percent in March and was up 4.2 percent on a calendar day-shift adjusted basis. March 2014 had one additional Monday and one fewer Friday compared with March 2013.

The company noted that these calendar shifts positively impacted prescriptions filled at comparable stores by 0.9 percentage point. Meanwhile, prescriptions filled at comparable stores were negatively impacted by 0.3 percentage point due to the lower incidence of flu in the month under review.

In March, pharmacy sales climbed 8.9 percent. Comparable store pharmacy sales were also up 8.0 percent and increased by a calendar day-shift adjusted 7.1 percent.

Calendar day shifts positively impacted pharmacy sales in comparable stores by 0.9 percentage point. Meanwhile, calendar day-shift adjusted comparable store pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by 1.6 percentage points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months.

In addition, pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by 0.4 percentage point due to a lower incidence of flu. The company's Pharmacy sales accounted for 64.7 percent of total sales for the month of March.

Calendar 2014 sales were $18.86 billion, up 4.3 percent from 2013. Sales for fiscal 2014 year-to-date for the first seven months totaled $44.39 billion, an increase of 5.4 percent from last year.

The company opened 13 stores during March, including three relocations, acquired three and closed one.

Walgreens said it will report combined comparable store sales for March and April with its April sales results.

WAG closed Wednesday's regular trading at $66.35 on the NYSE.