Walgreens (WBA, $54.66) tops fiscal Q2 earnings and sales estimates

Walgreens Boots Alliance’s fiscal third-quarter earnings surpassed analysts’ estimates, as the pharmacy retail giant bounced back with strong prescription drug sales.

Walgreens reported adjusted earnings of $1.47 a share for the quarter ended May 31, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.43.

Revenue of $34.59 billion also came in higher than analysts’ estimates of $34.46 billion. Sales in the quarter rose +0.7% from a year earlier, (or 2.9% after adjusting for fluctuations in currency rates). Walgreens mentioned its U.S. retail pharmacy business and pharmaceutical wholesale business as key drivers of growth.

U.S. pharma sales rose 4.3% while comparable sales rose 6%, according to Walgreens. Three analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected a 2.9% rise in same-store sales.

CEO Stefano Pessina emphasized that after a challenging second quarter, Walgreen has been able to improve its performance in the third quarter and has progressed in line with the goals set.

Contributor

Sergey Savastiouk|Expert

Sergey Savastiouk, Ph.D. has a degree in Applied Mathematics from Moscow University and has extensive experience as an entrepreneur, investor, manager, and mathematician. His professional expertise is in applied mathematics, mathematical modeling, system and pattern analysis, and software and hardware system integration. He has served as the CEO of several hi-tech start-up companies and nonprofit organizations, which has given him proven capabilities in business strategy for high-tech start-up companies, market assessment, company formation, team building, product development, marketing, and sales. He has published numerous articles in journals and magazines on related fields. As a retail investor, he spent 15 years developing his proprietary trading and quantitative algorithms (now Tickeron’s A.I.), which brought him significant returns in trading the stock market. His current work and goal in founding Tickeron is to bring professional, sophisticated stock market analysis capabilities to retail investors via an easy-to-use interface.