Financial News

NEW YORK — Moody's Investors Service compared the three largest pharmacy benefit managers — CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions — in a report issued Tuesday. While it maintained a positive view of all three, it gave CVS Caremark the highest credit rating.

"CVS Caremark has the highest credit rating of the three companies and is the only one with a retail pharmacy business, providing it with size and diversity that offset financial metrics that are weaker than the company's PBM peers," the report stated.

BOLINGBROOK, Ill. — Beauty retailer Ulta had a "terrific start to the year," as it posted strong double-digit gains in both net sales and same-store sales during the first quarter.

For the quarter ended April 30, net sales rose 20.6% to $386 million. Same-store sales rose 11.1%, compared with an increase of 10.8% in the year-ago period.

Net income increased 70.5% to $23.3 million, or 37 cents per diluted share.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart's board of directors has approved a new program authorizing the company to repurchase $15 billion of its shares, the company announced at its 41st annual meeting of shareholders Friday.

This program replaces the previous $15 billion program, announced on June 4, 2010, that had approximately $2 billion of remaining authorization. Under the program, repurchased shares are retired constructively and returned to unissued status.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — May proved to be a good month for Walgreens, as the drug store chain posted a total sales jump of 7% to nearly $6.1 billion.

Walgreens reported that its total front-end sales experienced a 5.5% increase, while comparable front-end sales realized a 3.6% increase.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Fred's on Thursday reported sales of $143.5 million for the four weeks ended May 28, up 1%. Comparable-store sales for the month rose 0.2%, compared with an increase of 3.5% in the same period last year.

ISSAQUAH, Wash. and WESTBOROUGH, Mass. — Costco Wholesale and BJ’s Wholesale reported strong sales growth and produced impressive comps even without the benefit of fuel sales.

Costco reported that net sales for the month of May increased 17% to $7.14 billion from $6.09 billion last year. This year’s May results period included sales from the company's Mexico joint venture. If these sales are excluded, Costco’s net sales increase would have been 14%.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Same-store sales at Rite Aid increased by 1.3% in May, compared with the year-ago period, the retail pharmacy chain said Thursday.

Reporting sales for the five-week period that ended May 28, Rite Aid said front-end same-store sales increased 1.8%, while same-store sales in the pharmacy increased by 1%, including a 129-basis-point offset due to introductions of new generic drugs. Prescription count increased 0.1%.

Total drug store sales during the period were nearly $2.5 billion, a 1% increase over $2.45 billion in May 2010.

BEDFORD, Mass. — A company that develops insulin-pump technology without tubing, such as the OmniPod insulin management system, has acquired a durable medical equipment distributor that specializes in direct-to-consumer sales of diabetes supplies.