Walgreens November Comp Sales Increase 3.2%

(RTTNews) - Drugstore chain Walgreens (WAG) announced Wednesday that comparable store sales, or sales at stores open for one year or more, grew 3.2 percent in November, with total sales, including stores open less than a year, also increasing 4.1 percent from last year.

The Deerfield, Illinois-based company reported that total sales, including stores open less than a year, grew 4.1 percent to $6.07 billion in the month of November, from $5.83 billion in the same period of last year.

The company's November sales results were negatively impacted by calendar day shifts due to one additional Saturday and one fewer Thursday in November 2013 compared to November 2012.

Total comparable store sales also grew 3.2 percent, which had a negative impact of 1.5 percentage points due calendar day shifts, and 0.6 percentage points due to generic drug introductions over the past 12 months.

At the company's pharmacy counters, sales for the month increased 4.7 percent. Comparable store pharmacy sales also increased 4.0 percent, negatively impacted by 2.3 percentage points due calendar day shifts, while being positively impacted by 0.2 percentage points due to higher flu shots. Its was also negatively impacted by 1.0 percentage point due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months.

Pharmacy sales accounted for 63.5 percent of total sales for November.

The company noted that flu shots administered at pharmacies and clinics season-to-date surged to more than 6.1 million from about 4.6 million last year.

Total prescriptions filled at comparable stores for the month of November increased 1.4 percent, including a 2.3 percentage points negative impact due to calendar day shifts, while being positively impacted by 0.4 percentage points due to higher flu shots. It also increased 3.7 percent on a calendar day-shift adjusted basis.

Total front-end sales in November grew 3.2 percent, and comparable store front-end sales was up 1.9 percent. Customer traffic in comparable stores also increased 0.8 percent, while basket size grew 1.1 percent. The growth was attributed to improvement in traffic and comparable store front-end sales amid higher promotional investment.

During the month of November, Walgreens opened 22 stores, including nine re-locations, and one closure. It also acquired a net total of 55 stores.

For the first quarter, total sales grew 6.0 percent to $18.35 billion from the prior-year quarter, with comparable store sales rising 5.5 percent, and front-end comparable store sales improving 2.2 percent. Prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased 5.6 percent, and comparable pharmacy sales increased 7.5 percent.

For the calendar year-to-date eleven-month period, total sales grew 4.3 percent to $63.80 billion from the year-ago period.

In Wednesday's regular trading session, WAG is currently trading at $58.27, down $0.44 or 0.75% on a volume of 0.14 million shares.