Walgreens results top estimates but coronavirus clouds outlook

Deerfield-based Walgreens Boots Alliance posted better-than-expected results for its second quarter, but the drugstore retailer said that the COVID-19 pandemic makes the future uncertain.

For now, Walgreens said it would update its guidance in its next quarterly report. Previously, it had projected roughly flat growth in adjusted earnings per share.

The report offers an early look at how businesses have been faring since the start of the global coronavirus pandemic. However, the company's quarter ended Feb. 29, before the worst of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. and the most ambitious of the social-distancing efforts to contain it. Walgreens said the early effects of the outbreak at the quarter's end weren't material to overall results.

Comparable sales at Walgreens' U.S. stores rose 2.7% from a year earlier. At the pharmacy counter, sales rose 5.3%, which the company attributed to more expensive prescription drugs, more prescriptions filled and growth in its specialty business. In recent weeks, shoppers in the U.S. have stocked up on drugs, cleaning supplies and toilet paper as they prepared to stay at home to avoid getting or spreading COVID-19.

Walgreens removed e-cigarettes from its U.S. stores last fall and has said it will de-emphasize tobacco. Those decisions weighed on results, as comparable retail sales rose 0.6% in the quarter, or 1.9% when excluding these products.

Walgreens shares gained 2.8% in premarket trading on Thursday. Since the beginning of 2020, the stock had declined 27% through the close of trading Wednesday.

Walgreens reported second-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.52, down from $1.64 a year earlier but better than the $1.46 Wall Street analysts expected, on average.