Walgreens October Comp Sales Increase 5.6%

(RTTNews) - Drugstore chain Walgreens (WAG) announced Thursday that comparable store sales, or sales at stores open for one year or more, grew 5.6 percent in October, with total sales, including stores open less than a year, also increasing 6.9 percent from last year.

The Deerfield, Illinois-based company reported that total sales, including stores open less than a year, grew 6.9 percent to $6.80 billion in the month of October, from $6.36 billion in the same period of last year.

The company noted that its October sales results were positively impacted by calendar day shifts due to one additional Friday and one fewer Tuesday in October 2014 compared to October 2013.

Total comparable store sales also grew 5.6 percent, which had a negative impact of 1.3 percentage point due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months, and a 0.3 percentage point negative impact due to calendar day-shift. However, more flu shots compared to last year positively impacted total comparable sales by 0.3 percentage point.

At the company's pharmacy counters, sales for the month increased 9.9 percent. Comparable store pharmacy sales also increased 7.5 percent, which was negatively impacted by 1.9 percentage points due to generic drug introductions, and it was negatively impacted by 0.5 percentage point due to calendar day-shift. However, more flu shots compared to last year positively impacted total comparable sales by 0.4 percentage point.

Pharmacy sales accounted for 67.3 percent of total sales for October. The company noted that flu shots administered at pharmacies and clinics season to date were more than 5.7 million, compared to about 4.9 million last year.

Total prescriptions filled at comparable stores for the month of October increased 3.6 percent, including a 0.5 percentage points negative impact due to calendar shifts, while it was positively impacted by 0.7 percentage point due to more flu shots compared to last year.

Total front-end sales in October grew 2.7 percent, and comparable store front-end sales was up 2.0 percent. Customer traffic in comparable stores declined 1.9 percent, while basket size grew 3.9 percent.

During the month of October, Walgreens opened 16 stores, including four re-location, and one closures. As on October 31, Walgreens operated 8,319 locations with a presence in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The closure was 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 ten-month period, total sales grew 6.1 percent to $64.15 billion from the year-ago period.

For the fiscal 2015 year-to-date two-month period, sales increased 7.7 percent to $13.22 billion from the prior-year period.

WAG closed Thursday's regular trading session at $65.24, up $0.12 on a volume of 4.21 million shares.