Walgreens September Comp Sales Increase 7.9%

(RTTNews) - Drugstore chain Walgreens (WAG) announced Thursday that comparable store sales, or sales at stores open for one year or more, grew 7.9 percent in September, with total sales, including stores open less than a year, also increasing 9.4 percent from last year.

The Deerfield, Illinois-based company reported that total sales, including stores open less than a year, grew 9.4 percent to $6.48 billion in the month of September, from $5.92 billion in the same period of last year.

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

Total comparable store sales also grew 7.9 percent, which had a negative impact of 1.3 percentage point due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months, and a 1.8 percentage points positive impact due to calendar day-shift.

At the company's pharmacy counters, sales for the month increased 14.2 percent. Comparable store pharmacy sales also increased 11.3 percent, which was negatively impacted by 1.9 percentage points due to generic drug introductions, while it was positively impacted by 2.7 percentage point due to calendar day-shift.

Pharmacy sales accounted for 67.8 percent of total sales for September. The company noted that flu shots administered at pharmacies and clinics season to date were more than 2.1 million, compared to about 1.9 million last year.

Total prescriptions filled at comparable stores for the month of September increased 6.6 percent, including a 2.7 percentage points positive impact due to calendar shifts.

Total front-end sales in September grew 2.2 percent, and comparable store front-end sales was up 1.7 percent. Customer traffic in comparable stores declined 2.7 percent, while basket size grew 4.4 percent.

During the month of September, Walgreens opened nine stores, including four re-location, and five closures. As on September 30, Walgreens operated 8,308 locations with a presence in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

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 calendar year-to-date nine-month period, total sales grew 6.1 percent to $57.40 billion from the year-ago period.

WAG closed Thursday's regular trading session at $59.76, up $0.74 on a volume of 5.31 million shares.