Walgreens Reports Lift In Annual Sales

September 30, 2014

Walgreens posted fourth quarter sales of $19.1 billion, representing an increase of 6.2% compared to the year-ago period, while sales for the fiscal 2014 ended August 31 increased 5.8% to a record $76.4 billion.

Front-end comparable store sales increased 1.3% in the fourth quarter compared with last year's fourth quarter.  Customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 2.2% and basket size increased 3.5%, while total sales in comparable stores increased 5.4%.  Walgreens Balance Rewards loyalty program reached 82 million active members at the end of this year's fourth quarter.

Prescription sales, which accounted for 65.7% of sales in the quarter, increased 9.3% compared with last year's quarter, while prescription sales in comparable stores increased 7.8%.  The company filled 211 million prescriptions in the quarter, an increase of 4.2% over last year's fourth quarter.  Prescriptions filled in comparable stores increased 3.9% in the quarter.

In fiscal 2014, Walgreens filled a record 856 million prescriptions.  The company continued to see strong growth in prescriptions filled for Medicare Part D patients, which increased 9.2% in the fourth quarter compared with last year's quarter.  Since the beginning of fiscal 2013, Walgreens Medicare Part D prescription market share has grown more than twice as fast as its overall retail prescription market share, the company stated.

"Our fourth quarter performance was in line with our expectation, recognizing we have much more to do.  We closed the fiscal year by exercising the option for the second step of our strategic transaction with Alliance Boots, completing the transition of our pharmaceutical distribution to AmerisourceBergen and driving continued improvement in our daily living business that resulted in our largest year-over-year quarterly and fiscal-year sales increases in three years," stated Walgreens president and CEO Greg Wasson.  "While continuing to work through pharmacy margin pressure, we were able to achieve improved top-line pharmacy growth as our retail pharmacy market share for the fiscal year increased 30 basis points to 19%.  Finally, we maintained solid expense control in the fourth quarter and are moving forward with the implementation of our previously announced cost-reduction initiative to achieve $1 billion in savings by the end of fiscal 2017."

Walgreens realized a net loss determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles for the fiscal 2014 fourth quarter of $239 million, compared with net earnings of $657 million in the same quarter a year ago.  Net loss per share for the quarter was 25 cents, compared with earnings of 69 cents per diluted share in the year-ago quarter.  This year's quarter was negatively impacted by an $866 million, or 90 cents per diluted share, non-cash loss on the amendment and exercise during the quarter of the company's Alliance Boots call option.

Adjusted fiscal 2014 fourth quarter net earnings were $714 million, a 1.7% increase.  Adjusted net earnings per diluted share for the quarter increased 1.4% to 74 cents, compared with 73 cents per diluted share in the year-ago quarter.  This year's fourth quarter earnings adjustments had a net positive impact of $953 million or 99 cents per diluted share.

The combined synergies for Walgreens and its strategic partner, Alliance Boots, in fiscal 2014 were $491 million.  The joint synergy program is estimated to deliver fiscal 2015 combined synergies of approximately $650 million.  Alliance Boots contributed 6 cents per diluted share to Walgreens fourth quarter 2014 adjusted net earnings.  The company estimates that the accretion from Alliance Boots in the first quarter of fiscal 2015 will be an adjusted 10 to 11 cents per diluted share, including a 2-cent benefit related to Alliance Boots' acquisition of its partner's interest in a joint venture.  This estimate does not include amortization expense, the impact of AmerisourceBergen warrants or one-time transaction costs.

During fiscal 2014, the company generated operating cash flow of $3.9 billion and free cash flow of $2.8 billion.  Walgreens also increased its quarterly dividend rate declared in August by 7.1% to 33.75 cents per share, consistent with the company's goal of returning cash to shareholders.  This marked the 39th consecutive year in which Walgreens increased its shareholder dividend.

GAAP total gross profit dollars increased $136 million, or 2.6%, compared with the year-ago fourth quarter, with gross profit margins decreasing 90 basis points versus the year-ago quarter to 28 as a percentage of sales.  Adjusted gross profit dollars increased $133 million, or 2.6%, compared with the year-ago fourth quarter.

Pharmacy gross profit dollars were negatively impacted by lower third-party reimbursement and generic drug price inflation, which were partially offset by an increase in the brand-to-generic drug conversions compared with the year-ago quarter.  Both pharmacy and front-end margins benefitted from purchasing synergies from the company's joint venture with Alliance Boots.

The company opened or acquired 46 new drug stores in the fourth quarter compared with 33 in the year-ago quarter.  In fiscal 2014, Walgreens added a net gain of 21 new drug stores in addition to 70 net new drug stores through acquisitions.

At August 31, Walgreens operated 8,309 locations with a presence in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  The company has 8,207 drug stores nationwide, a net gain of 91 compared with a year ago.  Walgreens also operates infusion and respiratory services facilities, specialty pharmacies and mail service facilities, and manages more than 400 Healthcare Clinic and provider practice locations around the country.  Walgreens digital Business includes Walgreens.com, drugstore.com, Beauty.com, SkinStore.com and VisionDirect.com

Source: Retailing Today