« GorillaTrades Unmasked | Main | The Dow's Annual Trend »

Last year, I wrote that Walgreen was too expensive at $44 a share. Let's just say that it wasn't one of my more popular posts. One commenter at Seeking Alpha was abusive that the editors there had to rewrite his comment.

Today, the company announced a 4% profit decline. The shares are now down to $39. It doesn't look like things will get better soon:

Net income was $396.5 million, or 40 cents a share, compared with $412.3 million, or 41 cents, in the quarter a year earlier.

It was the first decline in quarterly profit since early in the 1998 fiscal year, and executives warned that trouble could persist.

Revenue in the period, which ended Aug. 31, rose more than 10 percent, to $13.4 billion from $12.2 billion.

Analysts expected earnings of 47 cents a share and revenue of $13.5 billion.

"Many of the challenges we faced in this quarter will continue, including comparisons to last year’s blockbuster generics," said Rick Hans, the company’s director of finance.

Posted by edelfenbein at October 2, 2007 11:40 AM