Shares Of Wallgreen Boots Alliance Higher Following Strong Same Store Sales

reported on Tuesday that December sales rose 10.2 percent to $7.92 billion from $7.18 billion a year ago. Total front-end sales rose 3.5 percent while comparable store front-end sales rose 2.6 percent. At the same time, customer traffic in comparable stores rose 0.3 percent while basket size rose 2.3 percent. Walgreen stated that prescriptions filled at comparable stores rose by 7.8 percent during December and 5.7 percent on a calendar day-shift adjusted basis as December had one additional Wednesday and one less Sunday compared with December 2013. The company noted that this shift positively impacted prescriptions filled at comparable stores by 2.1 percentage points. December pharmacy sales rose 15.7 percent while comparable store pharmacy sales rose 14.2 and increased by a calendar day-shit adjusted 12.1 percent. Walgreen opened four stores during December but also closed four separate locations. The company ended the month operating 8,330 locations in all 50 states along with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Calendar 2014 sales rose 6.4 percent from 2013's level to $78.41 billion. Fiscal 2015 year-to-date sales for the first fourth months were $27.49 billion, representing a gain of 7.7 percent from the same period a year ago. As expected, the company confirmed that as of December 31, it completed Step two of its strategic partnership to form Walgreens Boots Alliance. Walgreen is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Walgreens Boots Alliance.