Walgreens September Comp Sales Increase 7.4%

(RTTNews) - Drugstore chain Walgreens (WAG) announced Thursday that comparable store sales, or sales at stores open for one year or more, grew 7.4 percent in September, with total sales, including stores open less than a year, also increasing 8.0 percent from last year.

The Deerfield, Illinois-based company reported that total sales, including stores open less than a year, grew 8.0 percent to $5.92 billion in the month of September, from $5.48 billion in the same period of last year.

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

Total comparable store sales also grew 7.4 percent, which had a positive impact of 1.9 percentage points due calendar day shifts, while being negatively impacted by 0.5 percentage points due to generic drug introductions over the past 12 months and by 0.3 percentage points due to higher flu shots.

At the company's pharmacy counters, sales for the month increased 10.4 percent. Comparable store pharmacy sales also increased 10.2 percent, positively impacted by 2.9 percentage points due calendar day shifts and by 0.5 percentage points due to higher flu shots. Its was negatively impacted by 0.7 percentage point due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months.

Pharmacy sales accounted for 65.0 percent of total sales for September.

The company noted that flu shots administered at pharmacies and clinics season-to-date grew to more than 1.9 million from about 1.6 million last year.

Comparable store pharmacy sales also increased 7.3 percent on a calendar day-shift adjusted basis.

Total prescriptions filled at comparable stores for the month of September increased 9.6 percent, including a 2.9 percentage points positive impact due to calendar day shifts and 0.8 percentage points due to higher flu shots. It also increased 6.7 percent on a calendar day-shift adjusted basis.

Total front-end sales in September grew 4.1 percent, and comparable store front-end sales was up 2.9 percent. However, customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 0.8 percent, while basket size increased 3.7 percent.

During the month of September, Walgreens opened 17 stores, including eight re-locations, and one closure.

For the calendar year-to-date nine-month period, total sales grew 4.1 percent to $54.11 billion from the year-ago period.

WAG closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $56.53, up $0.70 on a volume of 9.47 million shares.