Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG) reported a sales increase of 7.2% for the month of December. According to the company, its sales last month was $7.20 billion compared its $6.72 billion sales during the same month a year earlier.
The stock price of Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG) slightly gained to $57.51 per share at time of this writing around 2:00 in the afternoon in New York on Monday.
December sales results
Based on the financial statement of the drugstore chain, its front-end sales rose by 4% while its comparable front-end sales climbed by 2.5%. Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG) said the customer traffic in comparable stores dropped 1.3% while basket size increased by 3.8%.
During the month, the number of prescriptions filled at its comparable stores increased by 5.6%. On a calendar-day shift adjusted basis, the increase was 2.4%. According to the company, last December there was an additional Tuesday and lesser Saturday compared to December 2012. Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG) explained that calendar shifts has an impact on the number of prescriptions filled at its stores every month
According to the company, its pharmacy sales rose by 10.2% while is comparable store pharmacy increased by 9%. Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG) administered 6.7 million flu shots at its clinics and pharmacies to date compared with 5.5 million flu shots administered in the previous year.
Last December, the drugstore chain achieved a 6.1% increase in comparable store sales. According to the company, calendar day shifts contributed a positive impact of 1.7%. However, the introduction of generic medicines over the past 12 months negatively affected its total comparable sales by 0.7 percentage points.
Fiscal 2013 total sales
For the entire 2013, Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG) generated $73.72 billion sales, up by 4.5% from $70.52 billion a year earlier.
According to the company, during the first four months of its fiscal 2014, its year-to-date sales increased by 6.3% from $24.03 billion to $25.54 billion.
Competitor’s sales performance
Last weak, Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD) reported that its same store sales climbed 2.9% despite the 102 basis points’ negative impact from new generic introductions and 2% drop in prescription count. The drugstore chain generated $2.1 billion total sales in December.
