UPDATE: Walgreen Posts Downbeat FQ3 Earnings

Walgreen Co

reported weaker-than-expected fiscal third-quarter earnings. Walgreen's quarterly profit increased to $722 million, or $0.75 per share, from a year-earlier profit of $624 million, or $0.65 per share. Its adjusted earnings gained to $0.91 from $0.85 per share. Its net sales surged 5.9% to $19.40 billion from $18.31 billion. However, analysts were projecting earnings of $0.94 per share on sales of $19.49 billion. Front-end comparable store sales rose 2.2% in the quarter, customer traffic in comparable stores dropped 0.7% and basket size rose 2.9%. Its total sales in comparable stores climbed 4.8%. Prescription sales climbed 8.4%, while prescription sales in comparable stores surged 6.3%. Walgreen opened or acquired 39 new drugstores during the quarter. Walgreen withdrew its FY16 goals that were earlier announced in 2012. The company's press release offered the following comment from Walgreens President and CEO Greg Wasson: “We continued to see improving top-line growth in the third quarter driven by increased daily living sales and strong increases in both prescriptions filled and our pharmacy market share.” Walgreen shares declined 1.87% to $72.35 in pre-market trading.