Walgreens July Sales Pretty Much As Prescribed

Walgreens

reported July sales of $6.39 billion, an increase of 6.1 percent from $6.02 billion for the same month in fiscal 2013. July 2014 had one additional Thursday and one fewer Monday compared with July 2013. These calendar shifts negatively impacted prescriptions filled at comparable stores by 0.6 percentage point. Total front-end sales increased 1.4 percent in July compared with the same month in fiscal 2013, while comparable store front-end sales increased 1.1 percent. Customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 2.6 percent even though number of purchased items increased 3.7 percent. Prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased by 3.7 percent in July and increased 4.3 percent on a calendar day-shift adjusted basis. July pharmacy sales increased by 9.5 percent. Comparable store pharmacy sales increased 7.6 percent Pharmacy sales accounted for 66.5 percent of total sales for the month. Sales in comparable stores increased by 5.2 percent in July. Calendar 2014 year-to-date sales for the first seven months were $44.51 billion, an increase of 5.9 percent from $42.02 billion in 2013. Fiscal 2014 year-to-date sales for the first 11 months were $70.03 billion, an increase of 6.0 percent from $66.06 billion in fiscal 2013. Shares of Walgreens are trading by half a percent in pre-market trading.