Walgreen Jingle Cash Promo Was Successful, Jefferies Reports

Jefferies reports that its proprietary store survey of Walgreen Co. WAG suggests that the company's Jingle Cash holiday promotion was quite successful. “In fact, 83% of store managers indicated the promotion helped sales,” Jefferies writes. “Our research heading into the holidays revealed that Walgreens was well stocked, and given reports that overall retail sales were strong coupled with the results of our survey, we feel comfortable with our 3.5% front-end comp sales estimate for December.” Jefferies said it wouldn't be surprised given the -3.1% FE comp last December if the company exceeded its expectations. “Every 1% in additional front-end comp sales equates to $0.01 per quarter,” Jefferies adds. Walgreen closed Monday at $39.32.