Q3 Earnings At Walgreens Boots Alliance Beat Estimates

Walgreens Boots Alliance has reported that earnings from its fiscal third quarter reached $1.16 billion exceeding the expectations of Wall Street. Profit per share for the company based in Deerfield, Illinois was $1.07 which was an increase of 5.9% from the same period a year ago. After adjustments for one-time costs and gains, earnings per share were $1.33. Revenues for the biggest drugstore in the United States came in at $30.12 billion, a decline of 2.1% from the same period a year ago.

“Our results this quarter continued to meet our expectations as strategic partnerships brought more patients to our U.S. pharmacies. This led to our highest reported quarterly retail prescription market share in the U.S.,” said the chief executive officer and executive vice chairman of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Stefano Pessina, as he added that the cost transformation program that the drug store was undertaking was continuing to show positive results.

Earnings estimates

In a survey of nine analysts that had been conducted by Zacks, earnings had been estimated to come in at $1.31 a share. Revenue estimates were also exceeded as the analysts had also been expecting revenues to come in at $29.68 billion. For the full-year earnings Walgreens Boots Alliance is estimating that the figure will range between $4.98 and $5.08 a share.

Normally results from Walgreens Boots Alliance are reported under three segments namely Pharmaceutical Wholesale, Retail Pharmacy International and Retail Pharmacy USA. With regards to Retail Pharmacy USA, a figure of $22.5 billion in sales was recorded in the quarter. This was a rise of 6.3% from a similar period a year ago. At comparable drugstores, sales increased by 3.7%.

Pharmacy sales at Walgreens Boots Alliance increased by 10.3% from a similar period a year ago. At comparable stores pharmacy sales increased by 5.8%. The share of pharmacy sales at Walgreens Boots Alliance for the reported quarter was approximately 69.9% of all sales at Retail Pharmacy USA.

Pharmaceutical Wholesale division

Due to fluctuations in the currency, Retail Pharmacy International registered a decline of 10.3% in sales compared to a similar period a year ago. Sales for this division came in at $2.8 billion. At comparable stores store sales rose by 0.2%. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s Pharmaceutical Wholesale division saw sales fall by 7.9% to reach a figure of $5.3 billion.

In the same quarter gross profit fell by 3.9% from a similar period a year ago to reach a figure of $7.14 billion.