Walgreen Sales Growth Beats Estimates in June

Drug-store chain Walgreen (NYSE:WAG) said Wednesday it grew its same-store sales by nearly 5% in June amid strong pharmaceutical revenue.

Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreen disclosed a 6.8% increase in net June sales to $6.04 billion.

Same-store sales gained 4.8% last month, easily topping consensus calls from analysts for a rise of just 2.8%.

The revenue growth was driven by pharmaceutical sales, which climbed 6.2% overall and 4.9% on a same-store basis. Walgreen said its prescriptions filled at comparable stores rose 5%.

However, Walgreen said its June comparable sales were hurt by 2.1 percentage points by generic drug introductions over the past 12 months.

Shares of Walgreen gained 0.28% to $42.80 ahead of Wednesdays open. The companys stock increased about 6.6% year-to-date.