WAG RIEF-Walgreen Q4 adj earnings per share $0.74
Sept 30 (Reuters) - Walgreen Co <WAG.N>:
* Reports fiscal 2014 fourth quarter and full-year results
* Q4 adjusted earnings per share $0.74
* Q4 loss per share $0.25
* Q4 earnings per share view $0.74 -- Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S
* Q4 sales $19.1 billion versus I/B/E/S view $19.02 billion
* Says prescription sales, which accounted for 65.7 percent of sales in the
quarter, increased 9.3 percent
* Front-end comparable store sales (those open at least a year) increased 1.3
percent in Q4 compared with last year's fourth quarter
* Joint synergy program is estimated to deliver fiscal 2015 combined synergies
of approximately $650 million with alliance boots
* Total sales in comparable stores increased 5.4 percent in quarter
* Sees accretion from alliance boots in the first quarter of fiscal 2015 will
be an adjusted 10 to 11 cents per diluted share
* Continued to see strong growth in prescriptions filled for medicare part d
patients, which increased 9.2% in the fourth quarter
* Says prescriptions filled in comparable stores increased 3.9 percent in the
quarter
* Qtrly inventories benefited from the company's distribution agreement with
amerisourcebergen
* Moving forward with implementation of cost-reduction initiative to achieve $1
billion in savings by the end of fiscal 2017
* Says combined synergies for Walgreens and its strategic partner, alliance
boots, in fiscal 2014 were $491 million
* Qtrly pharmacy gross profit dollars were negatively impacted by lower
third-party reimbursement and generic drug price inflation
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