Walgreen’s fiscal first-quarter earnings sank nearly 26 percent as costs tied to a couple of big deals and Superstorm Sandy helped put a bigger-than-expected dent in the drugstore chain’s performance.
CEO Greg Wasson said he saw the quarter as a “turning point” for the company, which has been working to recapture customers it lost during a contract dispute with Express Scripts Holding Co. But investors didn’t buy that message at least initially, as the stock fell deeper than broader market declines in Friday trading. Walgreen Co. spent $4 billion this year to buy a stake in Alliance Boots, a Swiss company that runs the largest drugstore chain in the United Kingdom. It also spent $438 million on a drugstore chain focused on the mid-South.
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