Financial News

NEW YORK — In honor of Red Nose Day on May 25, Alex Gourlay, co-chief operating officer, Walgreens Boots Alliance, will ring the closing bell at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square.

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Direct and indirect remuneration fees and delayed maximum allowable cost adjustment ranked highest on scales of both magnitude and immediacy for rural pharmacists, according to new research released by the RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis.

MOSCOW — Walgreens Boots Alliance-funded Russian health and beauty products retailer Pharmacy Chain 36.6 expects online sales to account for 10% of total revenue by mid-2018 from just 1% now, its corporate finance director told Reuters.

To achieve its online sales target, the company has teamed up with online retailer Ozon.ru in March, but said growth will also come from sales through its own websites, 36.6 and Gorzdrav, the news source reported.

NEW YORK — AmerisourceBergen, AbbVie and Cardinal Health earned perfect scores in the Barron’s 500 list, an exclusive ranking of the 500 largest publicly traded companies, measured by reported in sales in the latest fiscal year and whose primary stock is listed in the United States or Canada. AmerisourceBergen, AbbVie and both earned perfect “grade point averages” of 4.0, based their stocks’ return on investment and sales growth.

ST. LOUIS — Express Scripts on Wednesday announced it had acquired myMatrixx, a pharmacy benefit solutions provider for the workers' compensation industry. The companies will merge core capabilities to deliver “best-in-class” clinical expertise, advanced analytics, and customized client experiences to serve workers' compensation clients and injured patients.

MINNEAPOLIS — Target’s 2017 fiscal first-quarter comparable-store sales suffered a 1.3% year-over-year decrease, driven by small declines in both traffic and basket size. First quarter sales for the period ended April 29 also dipped slightly from $16.2 billion to $16 billion.

Adjusted earnings per share also slipped by 6.3% versus the prior year to $1.21 per share, but this far surpassed company guidance, which had been between 80 cents and $1 per share.

Mass market doors might not be the prime destination for all beauty products, but there are market wedges the channel dominates. An example is color cosmetics, where brows and lashes are leading the charge to attract shoppers. Bath sales are also bubbling again as drug stores wrest customers away from mall-based specialty stores, while also nabbing licensed hits that score big with parents. IRI tracked double-digit increases in the category over the past year.