Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) Q2 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending February 28, 2022

April 28, 2022 9:00 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good morning. My name is Chris, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Walgreens Boots Alliance Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. Thank you.

Tiffany Kanaga, Vice President, Global Investor Relations, you may begin.

Tiffany Kanaga - VP, Global IR

Good morning. Thank you for joining us for the Walgreens Boots Alliance earnings call for the second quarter of fiscal year 2022. I'm Tiffany Kanaga, Vice President of Global Investor Relations. Joining me on today's call are Roz Brewer, our Chief Executive Officer; James Kehoe, our Chief Financial Officer; and John Standley, President of Walgreens.

As always, during the conference call, we anticipate making projections and forward-looking statements based on our current expectations. Our actual results could differ materially due to a number of factors, including those listed on Slide 2 and those outlined in our latest Forms 10-K and 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements after this presentation, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions or otherwise. You can find our press release and the slides referenced on this call in the Investors section of the Walgreens Boots Alliance website. The slides and the press release also contain further information about non-GAAP financial measures that we will discuss today during this call.

I will now turn the call over to Roz.

Rosalind Brewer - CEO

Thanks, Tiffany, and good morning, everyone. Walgreens Boots Alliance once again delivered strong results in the second quarter. Sales increased 3.8% in constant currency or high single digits on a core basis, excluding the negative impact of AllianceRx Walgreens and the positive M&A activity in Walgreens Health. Adjusted EPS grew 26.5%. Our good performance reflects execution across each of our business segments.

Our U.S. retail sales comp of 14.7% was the highest in over 20 years, above even last quarter's record, and we are seeing significant recovery in our international markets. At the same time, we are building our next growth engine, Walgreens Health, which is on pace toward its long-term target. And of course, we continue to serve communities with COVID testing and vaccinations to fight the pandemic.

During the quarter, we also undertook important actions to advance our strategic priorities and to ensure our asset portfolio is strongly aligned. We initiated a review of the Boots business, and this process is progressing well.