Walgreen Co, the largest U.S. pharmacy chain, reported a better-than-expected jump in December comparable store sales, helped by the month containing one more Wednesday and one fewer Sunday than a year ago and higher sales of flu medicine. The unit of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc said the extra sales days in December helped increase comparable pharmacy sales by 14.2 percent and boosted the number of prescriptions filled at stores open for at least a year by 7.8 percent.More people catching the flu in December also helped drive sales, the company said.Walgreen, which gets more than 60 percent of its revenue from prescription drug sales, also sells non-prescription drugs and retail merchandise.Smaller rival Rite Aid Corp, which last week also reported better-than-expected comparable sales in December, said it saw a 5.1 percent rise in the number of prescriptions filled at comparable stores.
Rite Aid Corporation is a retail drugstore chain in the United States. Shares of RAD traded higher by 0.21% or $0.0156/share to $7.54. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $4.42 and as high as $8.62. On average, 21280000 shares of RAD exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 12175939.
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