Walgreens Boots Alliance Q4 Earnings Beat Estimates

reported better-than-expected earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter and announced plans to buy Rite Aid Corp.

for a total enterprise value of around $17.2 billion. The Deerfield, Illinois-based company posted quarterly net earnings of $26 million, or $0.02 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $221 million, or $0.23 per share. Excluding non-recurring items, the company's adjusted earnings surged 14.3 percent to $0.88 per share. Its revenue climbed to $28.52 billion from $19.06 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.81 per share on revenue of $28.5 billion. The average estimate among 64 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.84 per share and revenue of $28.85 billion. Its sales for the Retail Pharmacy USA division climbed 4.7 percent to $19.9 billion in the quarter, while sales for the Retail Pharmacy International division came in at $3.5 billion. Sales for the Pharmaceutical Wholesale division totaled $5.8 billion for the quarter. Executive Vice Chairman and CEO Stefano Pessina said, "We are pleased with our progress and performance in the fourth quarter and in our first fiscal year since launching Walgreens Boots Alliance. While we have much work to do and operate in some challenging markets, we are excited and energized by the outlook and opportunities ahead as we put in place our strategies for long-term, sustainable growth. We believe we can shape the future of health care around the world through our ability to bring global solutions to local communities, benefiting all participants, populations and stakeholders." For fiscal 2016, Walgreens Boots Alliance projects adjusted earnings of $4.25 to $4.55 per share, versus analysts' estimates of $4.56 per share. Walgreens shares fell 0.38 percent to $94.80 in pre-market trading.