Reuters
Jan 7, 2016
Drugstore operator Walgreens quarterly sales miss estimates
Reuters
Jan 7, 2016
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc, which has offered to buy smaller rival Rite Aid Corp, reported lower-than-expected quarterly sales as it cut back on promotions and offered fewer holiday decoration items.
The drugstore operator, however, raised the lower end of its full-year adjusted profit forecast range.
Walgreens, which offered to buy Rite Aid for $9.4 billion in October, said the deal was progressing as planned.
Walgreens said it now expected an adjusted profit of $4.30-$4.55 per share for the year ending August, compared with $4.25-$4.55 it had forecast earlier.
The net income attributable to Walgreens rose to $1.11 billion, or $1.01 per share, in the first quarter ended Nov. 30 from $850 million, or 89 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company earned $1.03 per share.
Net sales rose 48.5 percent to $29.03 billion, partly helped by the company's acquisition of Europe's Alliance Boots. Comparable sales at U.S. Walgreens and Duane Reade stores rose 5.8 percent.
Analysts on average had expected a profit of 96 cents per share and net sales of $29.24 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
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