Walgreens August sales increase 8.6% to $5.66 billion

Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) (NASDAQ: WAG) had August sales of $5.66 billion, an increase of 8.6 percent from $5.22 billion for the same month in 2009. Duane Reade stores, acquired in April 2010, contributed 2.8 percentage points to the total sales increase for the month.

Sales in comparable stores (those open at least a year) increased 2.1 percent. The effect of calendar day shifts positively impacted total comparable sales by 1.0 percentage point. Duane Reade stores are not included in any comparable store results.

August pharmacy sales increased 8.6 percent, while comparable pharmacy sales increased 2.9 percent. The effect of calendar day shifts positively impacted comparable pharmacy sales by 1.5 percentage points. Comparable pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by 2.6 percentage points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months and by 0.3 percentage point due to lower incidence of flu. Pharmacy sales accounted for 66.1 percent of total sales for the month.

Prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased 5.1 percent in August, including 1.2 percentage points due to more patients filling 90-day prescriptions. Calendar day shifts positively impacted prescriptions filled in comparable stores by 1.7 percentage points, while the lower incidence of flu negatively impacted comparable prescriptions filled by 0.7 percentage point.

Total front-end sales increased 8.3 percent in August, including 4.8 percentage points from Duane Reade. Comparable store front-end sales increased 0.7 percent. Customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 0.8 percent, while basket size increased 1.5 percent.

Calendar year-to-date sales were $44.74 billion, an increase of 5.8 percent from $42.27 billion in 2009.

Total sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010, which ended Aug. 31, were $16.89 billion, up 7.6 percent from $15.70 billion. Comparable store sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010 increased 1.5 percent.

Total sales for fiscal 2010 were $67.44 billion, up 6.5 percent from $63.34 billion. Comparable store sales for fiscal 2010 increased 1.6 percent.

Walgreens opened 27 stores during August, including four relocations, and closed five.

At Aug. 31, Walgreens operated 8,053 locations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. That includes 7,563 drugstores, 566 more than a year ago, including 281 stores acquired over the last 12 months. The company also operates worksite health centers, home care facilities and specialty, institutional and mail service pharmacies. Its Take Care Health Systems subsidiary manages more than 700 in-store convenient care clinics and worksite health and wellness centers. Franchisees of Option Care, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walgreens, are not included in Walgreens location or store count.