Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc posted a better-than-expected quarterly earnings report on Thursday, with its profit beating Wall Street expectations. The company’s shares rose 3% before the opening bell.
Walgreen’s core business, its U.S. retail pharmacy, recorded a revenue of $27.6 billion for the period, exceeding analysts’ expectations of $26.8 billion. The rise in sales came as the filing of non-COVID prescriptions increased as the demand for COVID vaccinations declined.
Although the administration of COVID vaccines and testing helped Walgreens to offset lower prescription volumes during the pandemic, prescription filling spiked back to pre-COVID levels as the pandemic subsided.
Same-store sales during the second fiscal quarter rose by 4.9% compared to last year, while prescriptions, excluding vaccinations, increased by 3.5%.
The drugstore chain pursued several expansion efforts in 2022, starting with its $9 billion takeover of urgent care provider Summit Health in January. This acquisition followed the takeovers of two smaller healthcare providers, VillageMD and CareCentrix, to a combined value of $5.5 billion in 2021.