Walgreen Beats Estimates, Hits 52-Week High (WAG)

Shares of Walgreen Co. WAG are trading up 5.8% at $38.97 per share during the Wednesday afternoon trading session. Earlier today, Walgreen Co. reported earnings of 62 cents per share, on revenue of $17.34 billion, which beat consensus Wall Street estimates of 54 cents earnings per share, on revenue of $17.30 billion President and CEO Greg Wasson said, “Our performance was driven by our continued focus on gross profit margins, cost control and the strategic slowing of our new store openings. As a result of improved merchandising, including promotions and pricing, we saw significant increases in gross profit margins in the front end. We also generated $1.2 billion in cash flow from operations, reflecting our overall strong drugstore performance.” The day's range for shares of Walgreen Co. (WAG) has been between $38.94 and a 52-week high of $40.20 per share. The average price target of analysts who cover Walgreen Co. is $39.84 per share. Volume of 19.6 million shares is already nearly triple the daily average volume of 7.2 million shares. Read more from Benzinga's Company news.