Walgrens suspends profits and breaks 90 years of shareholders’ payments

Walgrens dove shares early on Friday, a day after a pharmacy chain said it was suspended its profits, and broke a series of quarterly shareholders’ payments that extend for more than 90 years.

A pharmacy chain said on Thursday after the closure of the markets that it had taken this step to enhance its public budget and improve the free cash flow, as the company’s leaders are trying to circumvent. Stressive works.

Walgrens deals with gentle prescription compensation, high costs, continuous shoppers, and shoppers sensitive to inflation who are looking for deals elsewhere. Company In the early stages From a plan to close 1,200 from about 8,500 American sites.

The company said in a brief statement on Thursday that its cash needs over the next few years of things such as litigation and debt financing were large parts of the decision to suspend profits.

Earlier this month, the US Department of Justice litigate In the Federal Court, a pharmacy chain accuses millions of millions of medical prescriptions without a legal purpose, including some dangerous quantities of opioid materials.

In September, The company said You will pay $ 106 million to settle separate lawsuits for wrong payment claims.

Walgrens started last year Cut the quarterly profits Almost half. The company reduced the payment to 25 cents from 48 cents, after spent about $ 1.7 billion on cash profits in the fiscal year 2023.

The financial manager from Manmohan Mahajan told analysts earlier this month that Walgrens still resides “the suitability and size of our profits as part of our capital customization policy.”

“The comment was wise and somewhat delayed.” He added that the division may “become out” in terms of their return and the money it requires.

There were only two comments on the distribution of last year’s profits in the S&P 500, including one of the Intel chips. There are generally only a few every year.

“A suspension of profits is” a signal of profit distributions, “said Howard Silverblas, a sign of the profit distributions,” a reference to the entire world that I have a problem, which is a cash flow, not in the short term.

But he added that the markets often see the suspension of profits as a positive sign in the beginning because the company realizes it suffers from a problem and takes a step to correct it.

The company says it has paid cash dividends every quarter since 1933, a series of more than 90 years or nearly 370 consecutive quarter.

Walgrens Boots Alliance Inc. shares decreased. It is based in Derfield, Illinois, with more than 11 % to $ 10.16 in pre -market trading.