Walgreens May Comp Sales Increase 4.4%

(RTTNews) - Drugstore chain Walgreens (WAG) announced Wednesday that comparable store sales, or sales at stores open for one year or more, grew 4.4 percent in May, with total sales, including stores open less than a year, also increasing 6.0 percent from last year.

The Deerfield, Illinois-based company reported that total sales, including stores open less than a year, grew 6.0 percent to $6.57 billion in the month of May, from $6.19 billion in the same period of last year.

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

Total comparable store sales also grew 4.4 percent, which had a negative impact of 0.8 percentage point due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months, and 1.3 percentage point due to calendar day-shift.

At the company's pharmacy counters, sales for the month increased 7.9 percent. Comparable store pharmacy sales also increased 5.5 percent, negatively impacted by 1.3 percentage points due to generic drug introductions, and by 2.1 percentage point due to calendar day-shift.

Pharmacy sales accounted for 64.2 percent of total sales for May.

Total prescriptions filled at comparable stores for the month of May increased 3.5 percent, including a 2.1 percentage points negative impact due to calendar shifts.

Total front-end sales in May grew 3.0 percent, and comparable store front-end sales was up 2.6 percent. Customer traffic in comparable stores edged down 0.5 percent, while basket size grew 3.1 percent.

During the month of May, Walgreens opened eight stores, including one re-location, one acquisition, and twenty-three 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 third quarter, total sales grew 6.5 percent to $19.49 billion from the prior-year quarter, with comparable store sales rising 5.1 percent, and front-end comparable store sales improving 2.2 percent. Prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased 4.0 percent, and comparable pharmacy sales increased 6.8 percent.

For the calendar year-to-date five-month period, total sales grew 5.5 percent to $31.90 billion from the year-ago period.

For the fiscal 2014 year-to-date nine-month period, total sales improved 5.8 percent to $57.42 billion from the prior-year period.

WAG closed Tuesday's regular trading session at $71.56, down $0.30 on a volume of 3.65 million shares.