Post-Earnings Research - Walgreen

LONDON, October 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Investor-Edge.com has issued free earning research on Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG). The company featured in headlines on September 30, 2014 after reporting its Q4 and full year 2014 financial results for the period ended August 31, 2014. Click on www.investor-edge.com/FreeReports to read our free earnings research on Walgreen. During Q4 FY14, Walgreen Co.'s sales increased 6.2% Y-o-Y. Further for FY14, the company's sales grew 5.8% from the previous year, while its GAAP EPS fell by 21.9% from FY13. Our free coverage report can be accessed at:

www.investor-edge.com/register

Earnings Overview  

During Q4 FY14, Walgreen Co.'s sales increased to $19.06 billion from $17.94 billion in the preceding year. The company's front-end comparable store sales and total comparable stores sales grew 1.3% and 5.4%, respectively, on Y-o-Y basis. However, during Q4 FY14 Walgreen Co. reported a GAAP net loss of $239 million, compared with net earnings of $657 million in the year ago quarter. On a per shares basis, the company's net loss during the reported quarter stood at $0.25 per diluted share, compared with earnings of $0.69 per diluted share in Q4 FY13. The company's earnings during the reported quarter were negatively impacted by an $866 million or $0.90 per diluted share non-cash loss on the amendment and exercise of the company's Alliance Boots call option. On the other hand, the company's adjusted Q4 FY14 net earnings grew to $714 million or $0.74 per diluted share from $702 million or $0.73 per diluted in Q4 FY13. The free research on WAG can be downloaded as in PDF format at:

www.Investor-Edge.com/WAGFreeReport

For full year FY14, Walgreen Co.'s sales increased to a record $76.39 billion, compared with $72.22 billion in the previous year. Analysts from Bloomberg were expecting the company to report full year FY14 sales of $76.40 billion. For FY14 ended August 31, 2014, the company's GAAP net earnings decreased to $1.93 billion or $2.00 per diluted share from $2.45 billion or $2.56 per diluted share in the previous year. Walgreen Co.'s full year FY14 GAAP earnings trailed Bloomberg analysts' forecasts of $2.71 billion or $2.86 per diluted share. However, the company's adjusted net earnings for full year FY14 broadened to $3.17 billion, or $3.28 per diluted share, from $2.98 billion or $3.12 per diluted share in fiscal 2013.

Greg Wasson, President and CEO of Walgreen Co., stated that the company's Q4 FY14 performance was in line with the management's expectation. He said that Walgreen Co. closed the fiscal year by exercising the option for the second step of its strategic transaction with Alliance Boots, completing the transition of its pharmaceutical distribution to AmerisourceBergen and driving continued improvement in its daily living business that resulted in the company's largest year-over-year quarterly and fiscal-year sales increases in three years. He added that while continuing to work through pharmacy margin pressure, the company was able to achieve improved top-line pharmacy growth as its retail pharmacy market share for the fiscal year increased 30 basis points to 19.0%. Further, Mr. Wasson mentioned that the company maintained solid expense control in the fourth quarter and is moving forward with the implementation of its previously announced cost-reduction initiative to achieve $1 billion in savings by the end of fiscal 2017. Sign up and read the free analyst's notes on WAG at:

www.Investor-Edge.com/WAG-07102014

Stock Performance  

On the day of earnings release, September 30, 2014, Walgreen Co.'s stock declined 0.55% and ended the session at $59.27. The stock has recovered since then, although, on the last close, Monday, October 06, 2014, it finished at $60.65, 0.20% below its previous day's closing price. The stock vacillated between $60.46 and $61.09 during the last session. A total of 4.79 million shares were traded, significantly below its three months average volume of 9.06 million shares. Over the previous three trading sessions and from the beginning of 2014, the company's shares have gained 2.73% and 5.59%, respectively. However, the stock has fallen by 5.16% over the last one month. Walgreen Co.'s shares are trading below their 50-day and 200-day moving averages of $62.99 and $65.65, respectively. Further, the stock traded at a PE ratio of 20.00 and has a Relative Strength Index (RSI) of 45.18. Visit Investor-Edge and access the latest research on WAG at:

www.Investor-Edge.com/WAGEarningsCoverage

Sneak Peek to Corporate Insider Trading  

In the last one month, Walgreen Co. has reported three transactions by two insiders. On September 12, 2014, Thomas Sabatino, Executive Vice President - Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Walgreen Co., sold 4,480 shares of the company for $281,434 at a price of $62.82 per share. In addition, on September 19, 2014, Sona Chawla, President - Digital and Chief Marketing Officer of Walgreen Co., purchased 9,443 shares of the company for $306,236 at a price of $32.43 per share, while on the same day she disposed equal number of shares for $599,064 at a price of $63.44 per share. Complimentary in-depth research on WAG is available at:

www.Investor-Edge.com/WAGInsiderTrading

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