Last year ended well for drugstore major Walgreen (WBA -1.33%), as its key operating metrics for December reveal. Total sales for the month amounted to $7.2 billion, or 7.2% higher on a year-over-year basis. Overall front-end (i.e., non-pharmacy goods) sales also rose, by 4% across the same time frame, while pharmacy sales increased by a robust 10.2%.
Comparable-store sales rose 6.1% on a year-over-year basis, while front-end "comps" advanced by 2.5% and pharmacy sales by 9%. Comparable-store customer traffic, however, saw a decline of 1.3%.
Last month, Walgreen posted fiscal Q1 2014 results that saw year-over-year improvements in both the top and bottom line. Net sales were $18.3 billion while attributable net profit came in at $695 million ($0.72 per diluted share). Both figures were improvements over Q1 2013's figures of $17.3 billion and $413 million ($0.43), respectively.
