Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. reported on Thursday (Jan. 7) as part of its Q1 fiscal 2021 results that its Retail Pharmacy USA division had $27.2 billion in sales, marking a 3.9 percent rise from the year-ago quarter, including the effect of “store optimization programs” unveiled in the past, according to an announcement.
Sales in comparable stores rose 3.7 percent from the year-ago quarter, showing a 5 percent increase in comparable pharmacy sales and 0.4 percent expansion in comparable retail sales.
Prescriptions filled in Q1 rose 2.7 percent from a year prior, including a forecasted adverse effect of 210 basis points from the pandemic.
The pharmacy retailer reported that total prescriptions filled in the quarter rose 1.1 percent in contrast to the same quarter a year prior. It filled 297.3 million prescriptions, including immunizations, “adjusted to 30-day equivalents,” according to the announcement.
The earnings announcement came a day after AmerisourceBergen Corporation and Walgreens Boots unveiled deals through which AmerisourceBergen will buy most of Walgreens’ Alliance Healthcare businesses for roughly $6.5 billion.
On the same day, Walgreens Boots and VillageMD said that Walgreens Boots has sped up its investment in VillageMD to support the opening of between 600 and 700 Village Medical at Walgreens primary care offices in over 30 domestic markets within the four years to come, “with the intent to build hundreds more thereafter,” according to an announcement.
As for its overall results, Walgreens Boost reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.22 on revenues of $36.3 billion. The results came out ahead of analyst estimates of earnings per share of $1.03 on $34.95 billion in revenue.
“Our first-quarter results exceeded expectations as we continue to deliver on our strategic priorities. We have taken a major step forward in our transformation; we are divesting our pharmaceutical wholesale business with plans to use the proceeds to accelerate our investments in healthcare,” Executive Vice Chairman and CEO Stefano Pessina said in the earnings announcement.
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