Walgreens (WBA) earnings for the first quarter of 2025

Walgreens on Friday reported first-quarter fiscal profit and revenue that beat forecasts as it closes stores and cuts other costs to get out of a rough patch.

Here’s what Walgreens reported for the three months ended Nov. 30 compared to what Wall Street expected, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

• Earnings per share: 51 cents adjusted vs. 37 cents were expected
• Income: $39.46 billion vs $37.36 billion expected

Even after the big beat, Walgreens maintained its 2025 adjusted earnings guidance of $1.40 to $1.80 per share. The company did not include annual sales guidance in its release. In October, Walgreens said it expected revenue of $147 billion to $151 billion for the fiscal year.

The company’s shares rose 27% on Friday.

“We began the year making progress on our financial and strategic priorities, despite a challenging backdrop for our consumers,” Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth said in an earnings call Friday.

“Importantly, we began to make progress on opportunities that we consider essential to our longer-term return,” he said, adding that the “core” of that effort is stabilizing the U.S. retail pharmaceutical business.

It ended a rocky past year marked by Walgreens pharmaceutical reimbursement pressuresofter consumer spending in its stores and the challenges around it push to primary careamong other issues. The results are coming among the reports that the company is in talks to be sold to private equity firm Sycamore Partners.

In its fiscal first quarter, Walgreens posted sales of $39.46 billion, up 7.5% from the same period a year ago, as all three of its business segments grew.

The company reported a net loss of $265 million, or 31 cents per share, in the fiscal first quarter. That compares with a net loss of $67 million, or 8 cents per share, for the year-earlier period.

Walgreens said the loss was primarily driven by higher operating losses, which reflect a multi-year plan to close underperforming stores. That includes 1,200 over the next three years, 500 in fiscal 2025 alone.

Walgreens has about 8,500 retail pharmacy locations in the U.S., according to him website. The company expects to “significantly increase our rate of store closings from first quarter levels,” Wentworth said.

Excluding certain items, adjusted earnings were 51 cents per share for the quarter.

In addition to the store closings, Wentworth said Walgreens is “improving the way we forecast, assign and schedule work” at its stores. The company will launch a new programming model in January at 200 locations to improve the in-store experience for customers, patients and employees.

The changes will plan staffing based on store-specific order patterns, while also taking into account team members’ availability and preferences, he said.

Wentworth noted, however, that turning around the consumer retail business “has been more challenging because of the persistent deterioration in consumer discretionary spending.” Buyers are under pressure from inflation and higher interest rates, and continue to exhibit value-seeking behavior, Wenworth said.

“We are advancing several elements of our retail strategy,” he said. “While we are seeing early green shoots, we still have a lot of work to do here.”