Walgreens Oct. Comps. Up 5.8% - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Drugstore chain Walgreens' (WAG) comparable-stores sales in October increased by 5.8 percent. The company said the calendar day shifts adversely impacted total comparable sales by 0.3 percentage point, while generic drug introductions in the last 12 months negatively impacted total comparable sales by 0.7 percentage point. The firm also reported October sales of $6.37 billion, a 6.1 percent growth from $6.0 billion reported a year back.

During the month, total front-end sales rose 3.5 percent year-on-year, and comparable store front-end sales went up 2.3 percent. Customer traffic in comparable stores edged up 0.6 percent, and basket size increased 1.7 percent.

Monthly prescriptions filled at comparable stores climbed by 5.7 percent in October and increased 6.2 percent on a calendar day-shift adjusted basis. This year's October had an additional Thursday and one fewer Monday compared with October 2012. These calendar shifts negatively impacted prescriptions filled at comparable stores by 0.5 percentage point.