Walgreens stock closes higher on Tuesday following Q2 earnings beat

Yahoo Finance Live reports on higher earnings for Walgreens stock as the pharmacy chain experiences a drop in COVID-19 vaccine sales and worker shortages amid the post-COVID backdrop.

Video transcript

SEANA SMITH: And let's also take a look at Walgreens. That stock rising today after beating the Street's expectations on its fiscal second-quarter earnings. You're looking at gains of just about 2.7%. Some positive commentary from the Street on the heels of these results, RBC calling it, quote, "a solid quarter" here for the company.

And this beat here coming amid the backdrop that the landscape here for Walgreens, as it is for a lot of its competitors, is changing post-COVID. We know testing, we know vaccines was a massive driver of some of their sales over the last 2 and 1/2 years. But the vaccines administered, that number dropping about 80% compared to a year ago.

Testing off more than 90%, although, obviously, not a massive surprise.

DAVE BRIGGS: Yeah, that's the big draw today. Profit down 20% on that. But look, their new CEO is focused. And I think the exciting opportunity if you are an investor in Walgreens has to be the entry into primary care and their continued focus on that through VillageMD. That is what you heard about a lot on the call today, added focus on primary care, which is a huge opportunity for Walgreens.

Also, they did reference a massive employee shortage in terms of pharmacists. 1,900 stores are currently short-staffed and running less than full hours, which continues to be a problem for Walgreens' pharmacies across the country. But a pretty solid report given that massive drop off in COVID vaccines.