Raphael Stevens

Stellantis’ top priority for the U.S. this year is to grow its retail market share after several years of declining sales in its largest, most crucial market.
Stellantis’ U.S. sales, including retail and fleet, have declined every year since 2018.
Antonio Filosa, head of the company’s North American operations, on Friday acknowledged the company has made “many mistakes” in recent years.

Stellantis North America Chief Operating Officer and Jeep CEO Antonio Filosa speaks during the Stellantis press conference at the Automobility LA 2024 car show at Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California, on Nov. 21, 2024.
Etienne Laurent | AFP | Getty Images

DETROIT — Stellantis’ top priority for the U.S. this year is to grow its retail market share after several years of declining sales in its largest, most crucial market.
Antonio Filosa, head of the embattled automaker’s North American operations since October, said Stellantis aims to grow U.S. retail sales and market share this year with the assistance of a revamped U.S.-focused leadership team and by mending bonds with dealers, including offering additional incentives, and releasing new products.

“This is obviously what we need to do,” Filosa said Friday during a media roundtable at the Detroit Auto Show. “U.S. retail market share is our main priority.”
Stellantis’ U.S. sales, including retail and fleet, have declined every year since 2018. That includes sales by Fiat Chrysler, which merged with French automaker PSA Groupe in 2021 to form Stellantis.
The company’s overall U.S. market share fell from 12.6% in 2019 to 9.6% in 2023, according to annual public filings.
Leaders of Stellantis’ U.S. auto brands during separate interviews Friday said they’re facing a a grow or die mentality for 2025. They also expressed optimism about the company’s recent changes and direction.
“We’ve got very aggressive strategies,” Bob Broderdorf, head of Jeep in North America, told CNBC. “If you shopped us six months ago, it’s a very different story right now.”

Stellantis’ sales, as well as bottom line, have been hit hardest by declines of Jeep and its Ram Trucks brands in recent years.

Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis unveils the Charger Daytona SRT concept electric muscle car in Pontiac, Michigan, Aug. 17, 2022.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

Ram boss Tim Kuniskis, who unretired from the automaker last month, has promised to adjust the brand’s strategy, production and products to assist dealers and sales.
“We had a bad year. There’s no way to sugarcoat it,” Kuniskis said, citing a slow ramp-up of its redesigned Ram 1500 pickups. “I’m very bullish on this year … The real part is balancing between the volume and the margin.”
Ahead of the merger and under former CEO Carlos Tavares, the company focused relentlessly on profits over market share. Sources previously told CNBC that Tavares’ emphasis on cost cutting, a goal of achieving double-digit profit margins under his “Dare Forward 2030” business plan and a reluctance, if not unwillingness, to listen to U.S. executives about the American market led to the company’s current situation and, ultimately, Tavares’ departure last month.
Filosa on Friday acknowledged the company has made “many mistakes” in recent years. He said the company neglected the importance of the North American market, specifically the U.S.
Filosa said Stellantis may make additional changes to its U.S. operations, depending on potential regulations of the incoming Trump administration, which has threatened changes to all-electric vehicle incentives and tariffs on Canada and Mexico — both countries Stellantis relies on for the import of vehicles.
“We are working, obviously, on scenarios,” Filosa said, adding that could mean additional jobs in the U.S. “But yes, we need to await his decisions and after the decision of Mr. Trump and his administration, we will work accordingly,” Filosa added.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO More

McDonald’s plans to shutter three locations of its spinoff brand, CosMc’s, and open two more restaurants in Texas.
The company said smaller locations work better for the test, which led to the decision.
McDonald’s created CosMc’s as its entry point into the growing “afternoon beverage pick-me-up occasion.”

A sign hangs outside of a CosMc’s restaurant, a concept recently launched by McDonald’s, in Bolingbrook, Illinois, on Dec. 11, 2023.
Scott Olson | Getty Images

McDonald’s will shutter three locations of its drinks-focused spinoff brand, CosMc’s.
To test the concept, the fast-food giant opened its first CosMc’s location more than a year ago in the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook, followed by six more in Texas. McDonald’s has converted larger namesake restaurants into CosMc’s, in addition to building smaller prototype locations.

The smaller stores work better for the test, the company said Thursday. As a result, McDonald’s will close three of its larger format CosMc’s locations and open two more small Texas restaurants. The company didn’t disclose the locations for either the openings or closures, although CosMc’s website says a store is coming soon to Allen, Texas.
McDonald’s also shared other early learnings from the pilot on Thursday. Savory hash browns are the top-selling food — at any time of day — followed by McPops, the chain’s mini filled doughnuts. Best-selling drinks include the Island Pick Me Up Punch, Churro Cold Brew Frappe and the Sour Energy Burst.
The CosMc’s test will continue for the “foreseeable future,” according to the company.
McDonald’s created CosMc’s as its entry point into the growing “afternoon beverage pick-me-up occasion.”
While CosMc’s menu features some McDonald’s classics, it also offers a host of new items playing off other beverage and snacking trends, like its iced turmeric spiced lattes, tropical spiceade and pretzel bites. Starbucks, Dutch Bros. and bubble tea chain Kung Fu Tea have found success with younger consumers by offering customizable cold drinks.

The name for the new brand comes from CosMc, a McDonaldland mascot that appeared in advertisements in the late 1980s and early 1990s. CosMc is an alien from outer space who craves McDonald’s food.
While it’s unclear just how much McDonald’s plans to grow CosMc’s, it’s still a miniscule part of the burger giant’s overall U.S. footprint. The company has more than 13,500 U.S. restaurants. Still, McDonald’s is hoping to learn more about its CosMc’s customers; last year, it rolled out a loyalty program specific to CosMc’s. More

Employers are increasingly requiring workers on GLP-1 medications to enroll in nutrition and lifestyle coaching programs.
Startup Virta Health saw 60% revenue growth last year, topping $100 million, driven by demand for its employer weight loss management program.
Rival startup Omada Health partnered with Cigna’s Evernorth division on the EncircleRx program which grew fourfold to 8 million covered lives.
The rapid growth for Virta and Omada is fueling speculation the startups could go public in 2025.

Packages of weight loss drugs Wegovy, Ozempic and Mounjaro.
Picture Alliance | Getty Images

A few years ago, when Virta Health founder and CEO Sami Inkinen approached employers about leveraging the company’s nutrition-oriented digital diabetes program for obesity-related weight loss, most companies weren’t ready to commit. 
Now, more employers are all in on nutritional counseling and coaching as they grapple with rising costs for diabetes and weight loss drugs such as Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound. 

“Our goal is not to drive the maximum number of GLP-1 prescriptions, but we are the telemedicine company of choice for many employers to responsibly use these drugs, and then also get members off of these drugs and sustain the weight loss nutritionally,” said Inkinen.
The company published a peer-reviewed study a year ago which found that patients on Virta’s nutrition-counseling programs maintained weight loss one year after they stopped using GLP-1s. But Inkinen says less than 10% of the company’s weight loss enrollees are using the popular drugs — most opt for nutrition counseling alone and still lose an average of 13% of their weight over the course of one year.  
“Quite frankly, despite the message that maybe the pharma companies are pushing, nobody really wants to be on these drugs forever, if you get the choice and the tools,” he said.
For Virta, the demand for such services resulted in record 60% revenue growth in 2024 to more than $100 million, according to Inkinen.
He said the 10-year-old startup is on pace to be profitable in the second half of this year.  

More employers require weight loss engagement

Companies surveyed by the Purchaser Business Group on Health said glucagon-like peptide medications, commonly known as GLP-1 drugs, are now a top driver of employer plan drug costs, with 96% of those surveyed expressing concerns about the long-term cost implications.
As a result, more employers are looking to utilization management strategies such as nutrition counseling and coaching services.
“Most employers want their plan members to have access to weight-management medication options, such as GLP-1s, however, they also want to ensure that it’s clinically appropriate and accompanied by the medical and lifestyle modification supports to ensure long-term safety and efficacy for the individual,” said Randa Deaton, vice president of purchaser engagement with Purchaser Business Group on Health.
Yet, using those programs sometimes result in new headwinds when it comes to pricing for GLP-1s in their pharmacy benefits plans, Deaton notes.
“We’ve seen that PBMs and drug manufacturers have been reducing their rebates when employers are requiring a lifestyle management intervention as part of the drug criteria, so it has been challenging for employers to put in place the right programs to support their workers and family members,” she said.
One of Virta Health’s rivals, Omada Health, is also seeing strong demand for its GLP-1 weight loss management program, after partnering with Cigna’s Evernorth pharmacy benefits division on a program called EncircleRx. Program enrollment went from 2 million covered lives in the second quarter of 2024 to 8 million in the third quarter, according to Cigna CEO David Cordani.
“The market continues to absorb the challenges of affordability” of GLP-1 drugs and is looking for a more value-based approach, Cordani told analysts on the company’s Q3 earnings call.
“Clients are observing, and physicians are observing the start-and-stop dynamic that is transpiring for some patients, which also doesn’t generate the desired or intended outcome,” he said.

2025 IPO speculation

For both Virta and Omada, the GLP-1 growth dynamic is fueling speculation that the startups, which are both over a decade old, could go public this year — if market conditions are right.
Omada Health reportedly filed a confidential registration to go public with the Securities and Exchange Commission last summer, according to Business Insider. The company has declined to comment on the report.
Virta Health was valued at $2 billion following its last round of funding in 2021. It is Inkinen’s second startup. He was one of the co-founders of online real estate firm Trulia, which went public in 2012 and was later bought by rival Zillow.
As for Virta IPO plans, Inkinen says for now he’s focused on growing the company.
“If you have a thing that’s working, it is 1,000 times easier to just scale your thing, your team, your culture,” he said. More

Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery have called off plans to launch their sports streaming service Venu.
Venu was first announced in February and intended to combine the live sports assets of Fox, WBD and Disney-owned ESPN.
Earlier this week, Disney and streamer Fubo settled litigation over the platform as part of a deal to combine internet TV bundles.

Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery have called off plans to launch their sports streaming service, Venu, the companies said in a joint statement Friday.
“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service,” they said in the statement. “In an ever-changing marketplace, we determined that it was best to meet the evolving demands of sports fans by focusing on existing products and distribution channels. We are proud of the work that has been done on Venu to date and grateful to the Venu staff, whom we will support through this transition period.”

Venu was first announced in February and intended to combine the live sports assets of Fox, WBD and Disney-owned ESPN. It was initially slated to launch before the start of the NFL season in September, but was delayed in part by a legal challenge from internet TV bundler Fubo, which claimed the platform would be anticompetitive.
Together Disney, Fox and WBD control more than 50% of all U.S. sports media rights, and at least 60% of all nationally broadcast U.S. sports rights, according to the judge on the antitrust case.
The news that it would not launch came as a shock to Venu employees, who found out late Thursday night, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke anonymously to discuss internal matters. They believed they had a pathway forward to launch the service after Disney agreed earlier this week to merge its Hulu+ Live TV with Fubo, settling all litigation over Venu.
But the judge’s response in Fubo’s lawsuit questioned the legality of cable bundling in general, prompting Disney to strike the deal with Fubo, through which Disney would take 70% control of the resulting company. And two days ago, satellite providers DirecTV and Dish sent letters to federal court arguing that the legal questions brought up by the judge remained unanswered.
Rather than risk an extended lawsuit that could jeopardize bundling in general — including Disney’s efforts to bundle its own streaming entities (ESPN, Hulu and Disney+) — the three companies decided to pull the plug on Venu, according to the people familiar.

“DIRECTV remains a leader in sports and we look forward to working with our programming partners – including Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery – to compete on a level playing field to deliver sports fans more choice, control and value all in one experience” DirecTV said in a statement.

An advertisement for Venu Sports, the sports streaming venture by Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox, hangs at the Fanatics Fest event in New York City on Aug. 16, 2024.
Jessica Golden | CNBC

Warner Bros. Discovery’s business model relies heavily on negotiating bundled carriage agreements for its many cable networks, including CNN, TNT, HGTV and Food Network.
Disney is targeting a debut of ESPN “Flagship,” an all-inclusive ESPN streaming service, for August 2025. The still unnamed ESPN streaming service will including everything that airs on ESPN’s linear network, unlike ESPN+.
Disney’s deal with Fubo, along with the company’s recent carriage renewal with DirecTV, also gives the company new ways to package so-called skinny bundles — narrower selections of channels for less money. This was the idea behind Venu: selling a smaller number of linear channels for less money than traditional cable TV.
— CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo contributed to this report.
Disclosure: Comcast, which owns CNBC parent NBCUniversal, is a co-owner of Hulu.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO More

Chuck E. Cheese’s parent company CEC Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020.
The family entertainment chain has been plotting a comeback since exiting bankruptcy and spending more than $300 million to entertain the newest generation.
Trampolines, a retooled pizza recipe and the elimination of animatronics have been some of the biggest changes made under CEO Dave McKillips.

Chuck E. Cheese’s parent company has spent $230 million renovated its stores.
Source: CEC Entertainment

Four years after exiting bankruptcy, Chuck E. Cheese is making a comeback, thanks to a dramatic makeover to introduce its games and pizza to a new generation.
In June 2020, just as some states began lifting their pandemic lockdowns, Chuck E. Cheese’s parent company CEC Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It emerged from bankruptcy months later with new leadership and freed from about $705 million in debt.

Even when Covid subsided, the company faced another existential threat: figuring out how to entertain children – and their paying parents – in the age of iPads and smartphones. The company has spent more than $300 million in recent years tackling that challenge — and the investment has started to pay off.
CEC Entertainment, which also includes Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings and Peter Piper Pizza, has seen eight straight months of same-store sales growth and is no longer in debt, according to CEO Dave McKillips. The company isn’t publicly traded, but it discloses its financial results to its bond investors.
CEC Entertainment’s annual revenue grew from $912 million in 2019 to roughly $1.2 billion in 2023, according to Reuters. And that’s with fewer open Chuck E. Cheese locations. The chain has 470 U.S. locations currently, down from 537 in 2019.
Sustaining the growth won’t be easy. Like all restaurants, the chain has to win over consumers who are eating out less often as costs rise. Chuck E. Cheese also has to draw the attention of children and parents in a fragmented media market.

Goodbye, animatronics

Since Atari founder Nolan Bushnell opened its first location in 1977 in San Jose, Chuck E. Cheese has grown to become a staple of many childhoods, known for its pizza, birthday parties and animatronic mouse mascot and band.

After exiting bankruptcy, Chuck E. Cheese and its stores underwent a makeover, giving today’s locations a very different look. Gone are the animatronics, SkyTube tunnels and physical tickets of yore. Instead, trampolines, a mobile app and floor-to-ceiling JumboTrons have replaced them.
Those changes came from McKillips, a former Six Flags executive. He joined the company in January 2020, just months before lockdowns would temporarily shutter all of its locations. By April 2021, the company raised $650 million in bonds, which it’s been spending on its restaurants.
“The company was capital-starved for many, many years. It had not been remodeled. It had not been touched,” he said.
Apollo Global Management took Chuck E. Cheese private in 2014. Five years later, CEC Entertainment tried to go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company. But the deal was scrapped without explanation.
The new cash prompted a frank look at the Chuck E. Cheese model – including its iconic animatronic band, featuring Charles Entertainment Cheese and his friends.
“We pulled out the animatronics. It was a hot debate for many legacy bands, but kids were consuming entertainment in such a different way, you know, growing up with screens and ever-changing bite-sized entertainment,” McKillips said.
The chain also redid its menu, upgrading to scratch-made pizzas. Kidz Bop became an official music partner. Other kid-friendly brands, like Paw Patrol, Marvel and Nickelodeon, became partners for its games.
And then came the trampolines.
“We found one glaring opportunity for us … active play,” McKillips said. He added that growth in the family entertainment category is largely coming from activity-based businesses, like trampoline parks and rock-climbing walls.
The company first tested the trampolines in Brooklyn and then in Miami, St. Louis and Orlando. As of December, 450 Chuck E. Cheese locations now have kid-sized trampolines. And unlike the SkyTubes or ball pits of the past, customers have to pay extra to use trampolines. (The ball pits disappeared from Chuck E. Cheese locations in 2011, while SkyTubes lasted roughly another decade.)
After the company spent $230 million to remodel Chuck E. Cheese locations, McKillips now says that process is finished.
“We needed to fix the product. The product is fixed,” he said.

Subscription spenders

Reintroducing customers to the brand — especially adults who only know the Chuck E. Cheese of their own childhoods — has been another focus.
“You come in around three years old, you leave around eight or nine and you don’t come back for 15 years. We had to go and speak to a whole new generation of kids, and we were off-air during Covid. We had to build all that,” McKillips said.
For example, Chuck E. Cheese’s birthday business, one of the company’s best marketing tools, struggled in the wake of the pandemic. Today, it’s back at pre-pandemic levels.
And as Chuck E. Cheese started seeing the pullback in consumer spending that hit many restaurants last year, from McDonald’s to Outback Steakhouse, the chain had to come up with a way to appeal to the value-oriented customer.
Over the summer, Chuck E. Cheese launched a two-month tiered subscription program that offered unlimited visits and discounts on food, drinks and games. The membership encouraged families to visit more often than the typical two or three annual visits. The subscription starts at $7.99 a month, with additional tiers at $11.99 and $29.99 that promise steeper discounts and more games played.
“In 2023, we sold 79,000 passes. This year, we sold close to 400,000 passes during the same time period,” McKillips said, referring to 2024. “This shows that the value consumer will seek and will spend if they’re getting great return on their spend.”
In the fall, the company followed up on the success of the passes with a 12-month membership and has already sold more than 100,000 of them.

An entertainment empire?

McKillips’ biggest dreams for the chain and its mascots lie outside of the four walls of its restaurants.
“There’s another cute mouse down in Orlando that does this pretty well, so I see us in the same way, but we’re just getting started right now,” McKillips said.
In addition to 30 licensing deals for everything from frozen pizzas to apparel, Chuck E. Cheese is also exploring different entertainment partnerships that would make its mouse mascot a starring character, according to McKillips.
And that’s not all. The company has looked into the possibility of a game show. It has a prolific YouTube channel, with videos focused on its characters, not its pizza or games.
Plus, Chuck E. Cheese himself has six albums available on streaming platforms, and his band plays live, choreographed concerts.
“My dream would be to have a feature movie,” McKillips said. More

Delta forecast first-quarter earnings of between 70 cents and $1, slightly higher than analysts’ estimates.
Delta beat sales and earnings estimates for the last three months of the year.
The carrier is the first of the major U.S. airlines to report results.

Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Airlines, speaking on CNBC’s Power Lunch on Dec. 17th, 2024.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Delta Air Lines’ first-quarter outlook on Friday topped analyst expectations as the carrier forecast strong travel demand to start the year, which CEO Ed Bastian said will likely be the carrier’s best ever.
Delta said it expects to generate more than $4 billion in free cash this year, up 18% from 2024 and in the midpoint of its annual target of between $3 billion and $5 billion. For the full year, it expects annual adjusted earnings more than of $7.35 per share.

“We feel quite good coming into the new year,” Bastian told CNBC. “Everywhere, we see consumers continue to prioritize experience over goods.”
That is setting up Delta for “our best financial year in our history,” Bastian added.
Here’s how the company performed in the three months ended Dec. 31 compared with Wall Street expectations based on consensus estimates from LSEG:

Earnings per share: $1.85 adjusted vs. $1.75 expected
Revenue: $14.44 billion adjusted vs. $14.18 billion expected

Delta said it expects revenue to rise 7% to 9%, ahead of the roughly 5% growth analysts polled by LSEG had forecast. The carrier expects first-quarter earnings per share of between 70 cents and $1, slightly ahead of Wall Street predictions of between 65 cents and 97 cents.
The Atlanta-based airline is the first major U.S. carrier to report earnings this quarter. Airlines have enjoyed strong post-pandemic travel demand, which analysts said is likely to continue this year, with a few deals along the way for consumers.

Delta has said it’s been capitalizing on a boom in premium travel as more customers shell out for roomier seats or rewards credit cards.
Delta shares were up more than 6% in premarket trading. Airline stocks have rallied in recent months. Shares in Delta’s chief rival, United Airlines, gained more than 130% over the past 12 months. Delta shares are up more than 45% in that period. 

Read more CNBC airline news

Delta’s American Express partnership brought in $2 billion in the fourth quarter, up 14% from the year-earlier period. Revenue from premium seats, such as first class and premium economy, rose 8% in the fourth quarter to $5.2 billion compared with a 2% rise in main cabin ticket revenue to about $6 billion.
Unit revenue, a measure of how much revenue an airline is bringing in for how much it flies, rose 4% in the fourth quarter from 2023.
Delta’s profit fell 59% to $843 million in the last three months of the year from the same period of 2023 as expenses, including payroll, rose 7% or $942 million. Revenue rose 9% to $15.6 billion from a year-earlier.
Adjusting for one-time items, Delta posted per-share earnings of $1.85 in the fourth quarter, on adjusted revenue of $14.44 billion, both ahead of analysts’ estimates.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO More

Walgreens reported fiscal first-quarter earnings and revenue that topped expectations, as it shutters stores and cuts other costs to steer itself out of a rough spot.
The company capped off a rocky 2024 marked by pharmacy reimbursement pressure, softer consumer spending and challenges related to its push into primary care, among other issues.
Walgreens maintained its fiscal 2025 adjusted earnings guidance of $1.40 to $1.80 per share, but did not include a sales outlook in its release.

People make their way near a Walgreens pharmacy on March 09, 2023 in New York City. 
Leonardo Munoz | Corbis News | Getty Images

Walgreens on Friday reported fiscal first-quarter earnings and revenue that topped expectations, as it shutters stores and cuts other costs to steer itself out of a rough spot.
Here’s what Walgreens reported for the three-month period ended Nov. 30 compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: 51 cents adjusted vs. 37 cents expected
Revenue: $39.46 billion vs. $37.36 billion expected

Even after the big beats, Walgreens maintained its fiscal 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 expects revenue for the fiscal year of $147 billion to $151 billion. 
The company’s shares jumped about 10% in premarket trading.
Walgreens capped off a rocky past year marked by pharmacy reimbursement pressure, softer consumer spending and challenges related to its push into primary care, among other issues. The results come amid reports that the company is in talks to sell itself to private equity firm Sycamore Partners. 
During the fiscal first quarter, Walgreens booked sales of $39.46 billion, up 7.5% from the same period a year ago, as its three business segments grew. 
The company reported a net loss of $265 million, or 31 cents per share, for the fiscal first quarter. It 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 its multiyear plan to close underperforming stores. That includes 1,200 over the next three years, with 500 in fiscal 2025 alone. 
Walgreens has around 8,500 retail pharmacy locations across the U.S., according to its website.
Excluding certain items, adjusted earnings were 51 cents per share for the quarter. 
The first-quarter results “reflect our disciplined execution against our 2025 priorities: stabilizing the retail pharmacy by optimizing our footprint, controlling operating costs, improving cash flow and continuing to address reimbursement models,” Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth said in a release. 
He added that “while our turnaround will take time, our early progress reinforces our belief in a sustainable, retail pharmacy-led operating Model.” 

Growth across business units

Walgreens posted growth across its three business segments in the fiscal first quarter. 
The company’s U.S. retail pharmacy division generated $30.87 billion in sales, an increase of 6.6% from the same period last year. Analysts had expected sales of $29.21 billion, according to estimates compiled by StreetAccount.
That unit operates the company’s drugstores, which sell prescription and nonprescription medications as well as health and wellness, beauty, personal care, and food products.  
Walgreens said pharmacy sales for the quarter rose 10.4% and comparable pharmacy sales increased 12.7% compared with the year-earlier period due to price inflation in brand medications, among other factors. 

More CNBC health coverage

Total prescriptions filled in the quarter, including vaccines, came to 316.3 million, a 1.5% increase from the same period a year ago. Retail sales fell 6.2% from the prior-year quarter, and comparable retail sales declined 4.6%. The company cited a weaker cough, cold and flu season and lower sales in discretionary product categories. 
Sales from the company’s U.S. health-care unit jumped to $2.17 billion in the fiscal first quarter, up more than 12% from the same period a year ago. Analysts had expected sales of $2.09 billion, according to estimates compiled by StreetAccount.
That partly reflects growth in primary-care provider VillageMD and specialty pharmacy company Shields Health Solutions. Specialty pharmacies are designed to deliver medications with unique handling, storage and distribution requirements, often for patients with complex conditions. 
Walgreens’ international unit, which operates more than 3,000 retail stores abroad, booked $6.43 billion in sales in the fiscal first quarter. That’s an increase of 10.2% from the year-ago period.
Analysts expected revenue of $5.85 billion for the period, according to StreetAccount. 
The company said sales from its U.K.-based drugstore chain, Boots, increased 4.5%.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO More