Walgreens August Comp Sales Increase 3.7%

(RTTNews) - Drugstore chain Walgreens (WAG) announced Thursday that comparable store sales, or sales at stores open for one year or more, grew 3.7 percent in August, with total sales, including stores open less than a year, also increasing 3.6 percent from last year.

The Deerfield, Illinois-based company reported that total sales, including stores open less than a year, grew 3.6 percent to $6.39 billion in the month of August, from $6.16 billion in the same period of last year.

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

Total comparable store sales also grew 3.7 percent, which had a negative impact of 1.2 percentage point due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months, and 1.4 percentage point due to calendar day-shift.

At the company's pharmacy counters, sales for the month increased 5.4 percent. Comparable store pharmacy sales also increased 5.0 percent, which was negatively impacted by 1.8 percentage points due to generic drug introductions, and by 2.1 percentage point due to calendar day-shift.

Pharmacy sales accounted for 65.7 percent of total sales for August.

Total prescriptions filled at comparable stores for the month of August increased 1.1 percent, including a 2.1 percentage points negative impact due to calendar shifts.

Total front-end sales in August grew 2.1 percent, and comparable store front-end sales was up 1.4 percent. Customer traffic in comparable stores declined 1.7 percent, while basket size grew 3.1 percent.

During the month of August, Walgreens opened 23 stores, including four re-location, and five closures. 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 eight-month period, total sales grew 5.7 percent to $50.91 billion from the year-ago period.

For the fiscal 2014 year-to-date twelve-month period, total sales improved 5.8 percent to $76.43 billion from the prior-year period.

WAG closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $60.22, up $0.30 on a volume of 5.03 million shares.