• Walgreens reported fiscal first-quarter earnings and revenue that topped expectations, as it shutters stores and cuts other costs to steer itself out of a rough spot.
• The company capped off a rocky 2024 marked by pharmacy reimbursement pressure, softer consumer spending and challenges related to its push into primary care, among other issues.
• Walgreens maintained its fiscal 2025 adjusted earnings guidance of $1.40 to $1.80 per share, but did not include a sales outlook in its release.

Walgreens on Friday reported fiscal first-quarter earnings and revenue that topped expectations, as it shutters stores and cuts other costs to steer itself out of a rough spot.

Here's what Walgreens reported for the three-month period ended Nov. 30 compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

• Earnings per share: 51 cents adjusted vs. 37 cents expected
• Revenue: $39.46 billion vs. $37.36 billion expected

Even after the big beats, Walgreens maintained its fiscal 2025 adjusted earnings guidance of $1.40 to $1.80 per share. The company did not include annual sales guidance in its release. In October, Walgreens said it expects revenue for the fiscal year of $147 billion to $151 billion. 

The company's shares spiked more than 20% in morning trading.

"We've started the fiscal year by making progress against our financial and strategic priorities, despite the challenging backdrop for our consumer," Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth said during an earnings call Friday. 

"Importantly, we started to progress on the opportunities that we consider essential to our longer term turnaround," he said, adding that the "cornerstone" of that effort is stabilizing its U.S. retail pharmacy business.

Walgreens capped off a rocky past year marked by pharmacy reimbursement pressure, softer consumer spending at its stores and challenges related to its push into primary care, among other issues. The results come amid reports that the company is in talks to sell itself to private equity firm Sycamore Partners. 

During the fiscal first quarter, Walgreens booked sales of $39.46 billion, up 7.5% from the same period a year ago, as its three business segments grew. 

The company reported a net loss of $265 million, or 31 cents per share, for the fiscal first quarter. It compares with a net loss of $67 million, or 8 cents per share, for the year-earlier period.

Walgreens said the loss was primarily driven by higher operating losses, which reflect its multiyear plan to close underperforming stores. That includes 1,200 over the next three years, with 500 in fiscal 2025 alone. 

Walgreens has around 8,500 retail pharmacy locations across the U.S., according to its website. The company expects to "significantly ramp the pace of our store closures from the first quarter level," Wentworth said.

Excluding certain items, adjusted earnings were 51 cents per share for the quarter. 

Apart from the store closures, Wentworth said Walgreens is "refining the way we forecast, allocate and schedule labor" in its stores. The company is launching a new scheduling model in about 200 locations in January to improve the in-store experience for customers, patients and employees.

The changes will schedule workers based on store-specific demand patterns, while also accounting for team member availability and preferences, he said.

Wentworth noted, however, that turning around the consumer retail business has been "made more challenging by the persistent deterioration in consumer discretionary spending." Shoppers face pressure from inflation and higher interest rates, and continue to show value-seeking behavior, Wenworth said.

"We are progressing a number of elements of our retail strategy," he said. "While we are seeing early green shoots, we still have substantial work to do here."

Growth across business units

Walgreens posted growth across its three business segments in the fiscal first quarter. 

The company's U.S. retail pharmacy division generated $30.87 billion in sales, an increase of 6.6% from the same period last year. Analysts had expected sales of $29.21 billion, according to estimates compiled by StreetAccount.

That unit operates the company's drugstores, which sell prescription and nonprescription medications as well as health and wellness, beauty, personal care, and food products.  

Walgreens said pharmacy sales for the quarter rose 10.4% and comparable pharmacy sales increased 12.7% compared with the year-earlier period due to price inflation in brand medications, among other factors. 

Total prescriptions filled in the quarter, including vaccines, came to 316.3 million, a 1.5% increase from the same period a year ago. Retail sales fell 6.2% from the prior-year quarter, and comparable retail sales declined 4.6%. The company cited a weaker cough, cold and flu season and lower sales in discretionary product categories. 

Sales from the company's U.S. health-care unit jumped to $2.17 billion in the fiscal first quarter, up more than 12% from the same period a year ago. Analysts had expected sales of $2.09 billion, according to estimates compiled by StreetAccount.

That partly reflects growth in primary-care provider VillageMD and specialty pharmacy company Shields Health Solutions. Specialty pharmacies are designed to deliver medications with unique handling, storage and distribution requirements, often for patients with complex conditions. 

Walgreens' international unit, which operates more than 3,000 retail stores abroad, booked $6.43 billion in sales in the fiscal first quarter. That's an increase of 10.2% from the year-ago period.

Analysts expected revenue of $5.85 billion for the period, according to StreetAccount. 

The company said sales from its U.K.-based drugstore chain, Boots, increased 4.5%.