Walgreen (WBA) Dec. Comps Rose 9.2%

Walgreen (Nasdaq: WBA) announced that December sales increased 10.2 percent to $7.92 billion from $7.18 billion for the same month in fiscal 2014.

Total front-end sales increased 3.5 percent compared with the same month in fiscal 2014, while comparable store front-end sales increased 2.6 percent. Customer traffic in comparable stores increased 0.3 percent while basket size increased 2.3 percent.

Prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased by 7.8 percent in December and increased 5.7 percent on a calendar day-shift adjusted basis. This year’s December had one additional Wednesday and one fewer Sunday compared with December 2013. These calendar shifts positively impacted prescriptions filled at comparable stores by 2.1 percentage points. Prescriptions filled at comparable stores also were positively impacted by 1.2 percentage points due to higher incidence of flu compared with the same month a year ago.

December pharmacy sales increased by 15.7 percent, while comparable store pharmacy sales increased 14.2 percent and increased by a calendar day-shift adjusted 12.1 percent. Calendar day shifts positively impacted pharmacy sales in comparable stores by 2.1 percentage points. Calendar day-shift adjusted comparable store pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by 1.5 percentage points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months, and were positively impacted by 0.9 percentage point due to higher incidence of flu compared with the same month a year ago. Pharmacy sales accounted for 61.3 percent of total sales for the month.

Flu shots administered at pharmacies and clinics season to date were nearly 7.6 million versus more than 6.7 million last year.

Sales in comparable stores increased by 9.2 percent in December. Calendar day shifts positively impacted total comparable sales by 1.3 percentage points, while the higher incidence of flu positively impacted comparable store sales by 0.5 percentage point. Generic drug introductions in the last 12 months negatively impacted total comparable sales by 1.0 percentage point.

Calendar 2014 sales were $78.41 billion, an increase of 6.4 percent from $73.71 billion in 2013.

Fiscal 2015 year-to-date sales for the first four months were $27.49 billion, up 7.7 percent from $25.52 billion in the comparable period in fiscal 2014.

Walgreens opened four stores during December and closed four.

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