This is one of my favorites and I DO own some of this but not in my trading account and have not purchased any recently.
Walgreens is having a great day today. Currently trading at $32.17 up $1.48 on the day. Like so many retail ventures, much of the future growth of the company is dependent not only on opening NEW stores but how the OLD stores are doing. This is called the same store sales number that comes out each month and reports on how stores that have been open for at least a year are performing compared to the prior year. Walgreen reported today (6/03) that their same store sales jumped 8.1% for the month of May. Total sales (including stores open LESS than a year) jumped 12.3% to $2.81 billion from $2.51 billion in 2002.
On March 24, 2003, Walgreen reported their results for the quarter ending February 28, 2003. Net earnings were up 13.6% to $370.9 million. Sales increased 12.8% to a record $8.4 billion.
Looking at Morningstar we see annual sales growth from $15.3 billion in 1998, $17.8 billion in 1999, $21.2 billion in 2000, $24.6 billion in 2001, $28.7 billlion in 2002, and $29.6 billion for the trailing twelve months.
Walgreens is also starting to POUR out free cash flow, although negative in 2000 and 2001, they moved to a positive 539 million in 2002, and a positive 734 million (almost $1 billion) in the trailing twelve months.
Assets are greater than liabilities by almost 50%. This stock is a BEAUTY on this page. If you don't own any, buy some you will like it! Hoping your Tuesday is peaceful and profitable. Bob