CVS, Walgreens post strong July results

New York City CVS Caremark Corp. on Tuesday reported a 15% rise in second-quarter profits, with net income of $886.5 million vs. $771.2 million in the year-ago period. The chain attributed its strong results to new store additions, a later Easter and increased demand for products to combat the H1N1 flu.

Revenue rose to $24.9 billion from $21.1 billion, a 17.6% increase.

Wall Street anticipated revenue of $24.3 billion.

Same-store sales rose 6.1%, with pharmacy same-store sales recording 7.5% increases and front-end sales up 3%.

In other drugstore news, Walgreen Co. saw respectable results in July, though not at performance levels recorded by rival CVS.

Same-store sales rose 2.0% on boosts from the pharmacy unit as front-end operations suffered from the weak economy. Same-store pharmacy sales rose 3.8%, while front-end sales fell 1.3%.

Total sales in July for both the pharmacy and front-end, including new stores, rose 7.3% to just under $5.26 billion.

For the fiscal year-to-date period, same-store sales rose 2.1%, while total sales gained 7.3% to $58.12 billion.