Best Services Companies To Watch For 2015

Best Services Companies To Watch For 2015: Walgreen Co (WAG)

Walgreen Co. (Walgreens), incorporated on February 15, 1909, together with its subsidiaries, operates the drugstore chain in the United States. The Company provides its customers with access to consumer goods and services, pharmacy, and health and wellness services in communities across America. The Company offers its products and services through drugstores, as well as through mails, by telephone and online. The Company sells prescription and non-prescription drugs, as well as general merchandises, including household items, convenience and fresh foods, personal care, beauty care, photofinishing and candy. On August 2, 2012, it acquired 45% interest in Alliance Boots GmbH (Alliance Boots). In September 2012, the Company completed the purchase of a regional drugstore chain in the mid-South region of the United States that included 144 stores operated under the USA Drug, Super D Drug, Mays, Med-X and Drug Warehouse names. In September 2012, WP Carey & Co LLC acquired fiv e retail stores leased to Walgreen Co. In December 2012, the Company completed a transaction giving company a ownership stake in Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Pharmacy LLC.

The Company's pharmacy, health and wellness services include retail, specialty, infusion and respiratory services, mail service, convenient care clinics and worksite health and wellness centers. These services help improve health outcomes and manage costs for payers including employers, managed care organizations, health systems, pharmacy benefit managers and the public sector. The Company's Take Care Health Systems subsidiary is a manager of worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 700 locations throughout the United States.

As of August 31, 2012, Walgreens operated 8,385 locations in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico. In 2012, the Company opened or acquired 266 locations for a net increase of 175 lo! cations af ter relocations and closings. As of August 31, 2012, the Com! pany had 7,930 of Drugstores, 366 of Worksite Health and Wellness Centers, 76 of Infusion and Respiratory Services Facilities, 11 of Specialty Pharmacies and two of Mail Service Facilities. The Company's drugstores are engaged in the retail sale of prescription and non-prescription drugs and general merchandise. General merchandise includes, among other things, household items, convenience and fresh foods, personal care, beauty care, photofinishing and candy.

The Company offers specialty pharmacy services that provide customers nationwide access to a variety of medications, services and programs for managing complex and chronic health conditions. In addition, the Company offers its customers infusion therapy services, including the administration of intravenous (IV) medications for cancer treatments, chronic pain, heart failure, and other infections and disorders which must be treated by IV. Walgreens provides these infusion services at home, at the workplace, in a physician's office or at a Walgreens alternate treatment site. The Company also provides clinical services, such as laboratory monitoring, medication profile review, nutritional assessments and patient and caregiver education.

Customers can also access the Company's e-commerce solutions, which extend the convenience to purchase most products available within its drugstores, as well as additional products sold exclusively online through its walgreens.com and drugstore.com Websites, including beauty.com and visiondirect.com. The Company's Websites allow consumers to purchase general merchandise including beauty, personal care, home medical equipment, contact lenses, vitamins and supplements and other health and wellness solutions. The Company's mobile applications also allow customers to refill prescriptions through their mobile device, download weekly promotions and find the nearest Walgreens drugstore. The Company also offers services throu! gh Take C! are Heal th Systems, which manages its Take Care Clinics at select Wa! lgreens d! rugstores throughout the country.

Alliance Boots is a pharmacy-led health and beauty retailing and pharmaceutical wholesaling and distribution business. As of March 31, 2012, its fiscal year end, Alliance Boots had, together with its associates and joint ventures, pharmacy-led health and beauty retail businesses in 11 countries and operated more than 3,330 health and beauty retail stores, of which over 3,200 had a pharmacy. In addition, Alliance Boots had approximately 625 optical practices, approximately 185 of which operated on a franchise basis. Its pharmaceutical wholesale and distribution businesses, including its associates and joint ventures, supplied medicines, other healthcare products and related services to more than 170,000 pharmacies, doctors, health centers and hospitals from over 370 distribution centers in 21 countries.

Alliance Bootss stores located in the United Kingdom, Norway, the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Thaila nd and Lithuania and through its associates and joint ventures in Switzerland, China, Italy, Russia and Croatia. In addition, as of March 31, 2012, there were 58 Boots stores operated in the Middle East on a franchised basis. In its Health & Beauty Division, Alliance Boots has product brands such as No7, Soltan and Botanics, together with other brands, such as Boots Pharmaceuticals and Boots Laboratories. Through its Pharmaceutical Wholesale Division and several of its associates, Alliance Boots sells Almus, its line of generic medicines, in five countries and Alvita, its line of patient care products, in six countries.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By DAILYFINANCE]

  Russel A. Daniels/AP Walgreen Co.'s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings soared 86 percent, as the nation's largest drugstore chain booked gains from its method of inventory accounting and its acquisition of a stake in European health and beauty retailer Alliance Boots. T! he Deerfi! eld, Ill.., company said Tuesday that it earned $657 million, or 69 cents a share, in the quarter that ended Aug. 31. That compares with earnings of $353 million, or 39 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue climbed 5 percent to $17.94 billion. Adjusted earnings totaled 73 cents a share, excluding acquisition-related costs among other items. Analysts forecast earnings of 72 cents a share on $17.96 billion in revenue, according to FactSet. Walgreen (WAG) shares slipped 15 cents to $53.65 Tuesday before markets opened and after the company announced results. Walgreen recorded an $8 million "last-in-first-out" inventory benefit in this year's quarter, compared with a $132 million charge last year. LIFO is a method of accounting for inventory that assumes a company sells its newest inventory first. The company takes a credit or charge each quarter according to the anticipated inflation rate for the year. The company attributed the big swing to lower-than-anticipated prescription drug inventory ahead of a transition it made to AmerisourceBergen Corp. (ABC). Walgreen had announced earlier this year that it and Alliance Boots were buying an ownership stake in drug distributor AmerisourceBergen Corp. Walgreen also entered into a supply agreement with AmerisourceBergen for its drugstores, mail order and specialty pharmacy businesses. Last year, Walgreen acquired a 45 percent stake in Swiss-based Alliance Boots for about $4 billion in cash plus 83.4 million Walgreen shares. Walgreen then booked $124 million in equity earnings from its stake in this year's quarter. Walgreen runs the nation's largest chain of drugstores, with 8,116 locations nationwide. The company said an influx of generic drugs a

• [By Charles Sizemore]

  The “typical” property for Realty Income would be your local Walgreens (WAG) or CVS (CVS) pharmacy a high traffic, highly visible location that you pass on your daily commute. And under a triple-net lease, it is the tenant’s responsibility to take care of! the prope! rty and to pay the taxes and expenses. The landlords only role is to collect the rent check. Not bad work, if you can find it.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD  ) will release its quarterly report on Thursday, and investors who bucked the popular consensus that the drugstore chain was doomed to failure have reaped the rewards this year, with shares rising nearly sixfold from this time a year ago. But the question remains whether Rite Aid can truly pose a long-term challenge to CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS  ) and Walgreen (NYSE: WAG  ) , especially with the extensive debt that Rite Aid still has to address.

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Stocks moving in the Premarket included:

  Walgreen Co.(NYSE: WAG) gained 0.60 percent in premarket trade after losing 2.86 percent over the past week. Walt Disney Co.(NYSE: DIS) was up 0.56 percent in premarket trade after falling 1.12 percent on Tuesday. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc(NYSE: FCX) lost 1.01 percent in premarket trade after falling 9.44 percent over the past five days. Motorola Solutions Inc(NYSE: MSI) was down 0.85 percent in premarket trade after losing 0.53 percent on Tuesday.

  Earnings

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksforum.com/best-services-companies-to-watch-for-2015.html