Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) last week (January 30) announced that its directors are “suspending the company’s cash dividend historically paid to stockholders on a quarterly basis”.
The historic move ends 92 consecutive years of quarterly stockholder pay-outs, WBA yesterday (February 3) told C+D.
Boots’ parent company said that the decision is part of its “broader long-term turnaround efforts”.
Read more: WBA stock tumbles amid reports that sale deal is ‘dead’
“This change in capital allocation is aimed at strengthening WBA’s balance sheet by reducing debt over time and improving free cash flow,” it added.
“The company’s cash needs over the next several years, including with respect to litigation and debt refinancing, were important considerations as part of the decision to suspend the dividend,” it said.
“WBA leadership remains focused on successfully executing against its strategic priorities and maintaining financial discipline,” it added.
Shaking in their Boots?
The news comes as WBA’s shares last week plummeted as much as 10%, amid reports that its talks to “sell itself” to a private equity firm are “mostly dead”.
The rumoured deal with private equity firm Sycamore Partners is “unlikely to result in a deal”, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported at the time.
Read more: Boots parent company losses plunge to $265m in first quarter
Meanwhile, WBA last month revealed that it made a loss of $265 million in the first fiscal quarter of 2025.
The results showed a shocking 296% increase in losses from the year-ago quarter, when losses stood at $67m.
WBA said at the time that the new results were “primarily driven by higher operating loss”.
Read more: WBA sued for pharmacist pressure to dispense ‘millions of unlawful scripts’
And less than a week later, the US government filed a nationwide lawsuit alleging that since 2012, WBA “knowingly filled millions of prescriptions that lacked a legitimate purpose”.
The civil complaint claimed that WBA “dispensed millions of unlawful prescriptions” including “dangerous and excessive quantities of opioids” and “early refills of opioids”.
