(Updates with context in 2nd, 3rd paragraphs, analyst quote in 7th paragraph)
By Kevin Kingsbury and Kelly Nolan
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Walgreen Co.'s (WAG) same-store sales climbed 4.9% in October, following a strong gain in September and showing that the company is rebounding from weakness earlier this year.
The strong start to the flu season has helped Walgreen and other drugstore chains recently, as consumers have sought seasonal flu shots in record numbers, while also purchasing ancillary products like hand sanitizer and filling related flu prescriptions.
Walgreen's has distributed more than 4.5 million garden-variety flu vaccines since Sept. 1, nearly four times the amount the drugstore chain distributed during last year's flu season, spokesman Jim Cohn said in a recent interview.
Walgreen reported a stout 4.7% climb at the front end of the store. The industry has generally been reporting weak nonpharmacy sales for some time, with Walgreen returning to growth in that space in September.
Pharmacy same-store-sales growth was 5%, with seasonal flu shots adding 1 percentage point while generic-drug introductions the past year subtracted 2.2 points from the figure.
Filled prescriptions rose 8.6% on a same-store-sales basis, with nearly half the gain due to flu shots and more patients filling 90-day prescriptions.
"The results were pretty solid all the way around," said Pali Research analyst Robert Summers. "They did a lot better in the front end than many of us were looking for. Many were expecting good results given the flu season."
Walgreen added October results were weaker than they otherwise would have been because the results had one fewer Wednesday and one more Saturday than a year earlier.
Shares closed Monday at $38.71 and were inactive premarket. The stock is up 57% this year.
-By Kelly Nolan and Kevin Kingsbury, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2167; kelly.nolan@dowjones.com