Walgreens beats estimates in fiscal Q2

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ: WBA) is trading slightly up in premarket on Thursday after reporting upbeat financial results for its second quarter.

Walgreens' guidance for the full year

Investors are cheering also because the management issued encouraging guidance for the future. $WBA now forecasts its adjusted per-share earnings to fall between $3.20 and $3.35 in fiscal 2024.

Analysts, in comparison, were at $3.24 per share. Tim Wentworth – the chief executive of Walgreens Boots Alliance said in a press release today:

Walgreens expects its U.S. Healthcare adjusted EBITDA to breakeven this year. Wall Street currently has a consensus “hold” rating on $WBA.

Walgreens Q2 earnings snapshot

• Lost $5.9 billion that translates to $6.85 per share
• Had $703 million in net earnings a year ago
• Adjusted EPS printed at $1.20 as per the earnings report
• Sales jumped 6.3% year-over-year to $37.1 billion
• Consensus was 82 cents a share on $36.48 billion in revenue

Walgreens took a rather sizable $6.0 billion goodwill impairment charge related to VillageMD in the second quarter. Still, CEO Wentworth said on Thursday:

$WBA currently pays a dividend yield of 4.76%.