Walgreens profit misses estimates on pharmacy weakness

(Reuters) – Drugstore chain Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (O:) posted a quarterly profit that missed expectations on Wednesday, hurt by lower payments from insurers on drugs sold, sending shares down nearly 4% before the bell.

Sluggish retail growth, disappointing performance of Boots U.K. unit and low reimbursement rates for drugs have pushed Walgreens’ shares down 15.3% in the last year, making it the worst performer on Dow Jones Industrials Average index ().

Sales in the company’s U.S. retail pharmacies missed estimates, despite the company selling more prescription drugs, as continued low reimbursement rates ate into the unit’s profit.

The unit’s sales rose 1.6% to $26.1 billion, missing estimates of $26.18 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Gross profit from the unit fell 5.2%.

Excluding items, the company earned $1.37 per share, missing estimates of $1.41. Net income attributable to Walgreens fell to $845 million, or 95 cents per share, in the first quarter ended Nov. 30, from $1.12 billion, or $1.18 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $34.34 billion from $33.79 billion.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.