Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) stock rose 4.78% (As on October 12, 11:33:39 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company posted mixed result for the fourth quarter of FY 23. The company has appointed Tim Wentworth as its CEO, pinning hopes on the healthcare industry veteran to boost its lagging stock price and reverse a recent drop in profits. Wentworth, the former top boss of pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) Express Scripts before it was bought by Cigna, will be tasked with overseeing a push by Walgreens to diversify its healthcare services. Walgreens has been looking to expand beyond its core business, with acquisitions of healthcare services operator VillageMD and urgent-care provider Summit Health over the past few years. The company has been closing stores and cutting jobs to streamline its operations. With its core business weakened, Walgreens had said in June it would close its stores at 150 locations in the United States. It said it expects a lower contribution from sales and leasebacks of its stores this financial year. Further, WBA forecast financial year 2024 profit below Wall Street’s expectations on Thursday after the pharmacy operator missed quarterly earnings estimates due to lower consumer spending and a sharp drop in sales of COVID-19 products. Walgreens’ lower forecast comes at a time when the company is facing multiple challenges, like persistently weak prescription drug demand, reported walkouts by its pharmacy staff and a shift in focus towards integrated health services. It has also contended with weak sales of its consumer health products due to persistently high inflation. The company reported a 4.3% fall in U.S. retail sales and a 0.5% decline in total prescriptions filled, including vaccinations, in the fourth quarter. Walgreens announced a planned cost reduction of at least $1 billion and lowered capital expenditure by about $600 million.

WBA in the fourth quarter of FY 23 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of 67 cents, missing the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of 68 cents. The company had reported the adjusted revenue of $35.42 million in the fourth quarter of FY 23, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $34.56 million.

Walgreens expects full-year earnings to be in the range of $3.20 to $3.50 per share compared to analysts’ average estimate of $3.72 per share, according to LSEG data, with revenue expected to be in the range of $141 billion to $145 billion.