As it prepares to go private, Walgreens Boots Alliance beat third-quarter analyst estimates although retail comparable sales slipped 2.4%.
Company loss was $175 million, or 20 cents per diluted share, versus net earnings of $344 million, or 40 cents per diluted share, in the year-earlier quarter, the company reported. Adjusted for one-time events, net earnings were $334 million, or 38 cents per diluted share, versus $545 million, or 63 cents per diluted share, in the year-prior period.
A Yahoo-Finance published analyst consensus estimate was for adjusted diluted earnings of 34 cents and revenues of $36.72 billion.
Sales were $38.99 billion versus $36.35 billion in the year-previous quarter, the company stated. Operating income was $53 million versus $111 million in the year-before period, while adjusted operating income was $558 million versus $613 million.
The Walgreens U.S. Retail Pharmacy segment’s third-quarter sales were $30.7 billion, up 7.8% from the same quarter last year, with comparable sales increasing 10.3%. Retail sales, without pharmacy revenue and including general merchandise, decreased 5.3% year over year as comps declined 2.4%, hit by weaker sales in grocery and household, health and wellness and beauty. Adjusted operating income decreased 30.2% to $350 million, reflecting higher incentive accruals, lower retail sales and lower equity earnings in Cencora, the healthcare services business formerly known as AmerisourceBergen, partially offset by cost savings. During the past year, Walgreens has been selling off part of its Cencora investment.
Walgreens is preparing to go private with help from investor Sycamore.
In announcing the financial results, Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth said: “Third-quarter results reflect continued improvement in our U.S. Healthcare segment and benefits from our cost savings initiatives, while we continued to see weakness in our U.S. front-end [retail] sales. We remain focused on our turnaround plan, which will require time, disciplined focus and a balanced approach to manage future cash needs with investments necessary to navigate an evolving pharmacy and retail environment.”
