It's been a tumultuous first quarter of 2022 for the stock market, and Wall Street investors went into the last day of March with ongoing uncertainty about what the future will bring. Stock indexes were mixed as oil prices plunged and interest rates stabilized. As of 9 a.m. ET, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI -0.12%) were down 28 points to 35,089. However, S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.58%) futures were unchanged at 4,596, and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC -1.15%) futures rose 28 points to 15,099.
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA -0.06%) was the biggest-name company reporting its latest financials, and its performance left shareholders feeling uncertain about the drugstore chain giant's future. Meanwhile, shares of Vipshop Holdings (VIPS -2.48%) moved more sharply higher after some favorable news for investors. Read on to learn more about both companies.
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Walgreens makes progress
Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance were down almost 4% on Thursday morning after having been up earlier in the premarket session. The drugstore chain's fiscal second-quarter financial results included some highlights but also raised some concerns among shareholders.
The numbers from Walgreens were mixed. Sales from continuing operations were up 3% from year-ago levels, with solid gains in the core Walgreens segment as well as in its international business. However, sales declined at the AllianceRx Walgreens unit, and net income from continuing operations fell 4% year over year to $883 million. After adjusting for certain accounting items, though, adjusted earnings of $1.59 per share were up 26% from the same period last year.
On the plus side, though, retail comparable sales growth of 14.7% in the U.S. was the highest in more than 20 years, and ongoing growth in digital sales has spurred greater use of pick-up services. Membership in the MyWalgreens loyalty program reached 96.1 million, up 10.9 million in the past six months, and the company opened three new automated micro-fulfillment centers as part of a longer-term strategy to embrace automation.
Looking ahead, though, Walgreens still expects earnings per share to grow only at low-single-digit percentages for fiscal 2022. With the company looking at strategic alternatives for Boots and seeking to focus more sharply on U.S. healthcare, there's a lot for Walgreens to clarify in the quarters ahead.
Vipshop buys low
Elsewhere, shares of Vipshop Holdings picked up almost 8% in premarket trading Thursday morning. The Chinese e-commerce company made an announcement that inspired some new confidence in its beleaguered stock.
Vipshop said that its board of directors has authorized a new stock program for the company. Under the program, Vipshop will be allowed to buy back up to $1 billion in stock. The plan calls for any repurchases to occur within the next 24 months.
The move is timely, as Vipshop shares have performed poorly. After dropping 70% in 2021, the stock price was down another 30% in 2022 as of earlier this month before mounting a significant rebound. Sentiment among investors toward Chinese stocks has improved somewhat in the past two weeks, but there's still considerable uncertainty regarding how China's zero-COVID policy and the lockdowns that the Chinese government has implemented recently will affect the world's second-largest economy.
Buybacks by themselves don't always result in higher stock prices. But for a company that's been itching for some good news, shareholders in Vipshop aren't quibbling about this expression of long-term confidence.
