Walgreens Boots Alliance
Retail Pharmacy & HealthcareFounded 1901- Updated July 2025
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Last reviewed: July 2025
CorpDigest
Walgreens Boots Alliance
Financial Performance
Last reviewed: July 2025 · By Swet Parvadiya
Revenue
$147.7B
Market Cap
$8.5B
Employees
312,000
Walgreens reported $147.7 billion in fiscal 2024 revenue against a net loss of $8.6 billion — one of the largest losses in the company's history, driven by VillageMD impairments, opioid settlement charges, and the structural compression of pharmacy reimbursement. Revenue grew from $132.5 billion in 2021 to $147.7 billion in 2024, but profitability moved in the opposite direction. The market capitalization of $8.5 billion on $147.7 billion in revenue implies a price-to-sales ratio of roughly 0.06. That number reflects deep investor skepticism about whether the business model is fixable on a timeline that generates acceptable returns, given the balance sheet pressures, the competitive environment, and the sheer complexity of unwinding the Boots Alliance combination. The CFPB's $3.7 billion settlement in December 2022 — the largest in the agency's history at the time — covered auto loan insurance abuses and mortgage fee overcharges from Walgreens' financial services partnerships. The opioid liability finding from 2021 added billions more in potential obligations. Legal costs of this magnitude compound the operational cash flow pressure. The dividend cut in 2024 was a financial signal as much as a cash management decision. A company that had paid increasing dividends for nearly 90 years cutting the payout tells investors that management believes cash preservation matters more than signaling confidence in the earnings recovery.
Revenue Trend Analysis
YoY Change
+6.2%
4-Year CAGR
+1.4%
Peak Year
2024
Trend
Consistent Growth
Walgreens Boots Alliance has reported revenue across 5 fiscal years, compounding at +1.4% annually over 4 years. The most recent year saw a 6.2% increase versus the prior year. Revenue peaked in 2024 at $147.7B. Out of 4 reported periods, 3 showed growth and 1 showed a decline.
| Fiscal Year | Revenue | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|
| FY2024 | $147.7B | +6.2% |
| FY2023 | $139.1B | +4.8% |
| FY2022 | $132.7B | +0.1% |
| FY2021 | $132.5B | -5.0% |
| FY2020 | $139.5B | — |
Source: SEC EDGAR filings, annual earnings releases, and verified financial disclosures.
Click any row to see year details.
Walgreens Boots Alliance reported fiscal year 2024 (ended 31 August 2024) revenue of $147.66 billion, up 6.2% from $139.1 billion in fiscal 2023, with the growth driven by prescription volume and pricing in the US Retail Pharmacy segment. However, the company reported a GAAP net loss of $8.6 billion (a loss of $9.95 per share) for the year, compared with a net loss of $3.1 billion in fiscal 2023. The fiscal 2024 loss was driven primarily by $12.4 billion of non-cash impairment and other charges, including approximately $5.8 billion of goodwill impairment on VillageMD and approximately $3.0 billion on Summit Health-CityMD, plus opioid-related legal accruals. Adjusted earnings per share, which excludes those impairments and certain other items, came in at $2.88 per diluted share, down 33% from $4.29 in fiscal 2023 and well below the $4.45–$4.65 management had guided at the start of the year. Free cash flow was negative $1.5 billion for the year, leading the company to cut its quarterly dividend by 48% from $0.48 to $0.25 per share in January 2024, the first reduction since the dividend began in 1933.
Walgreens Boots Alliance market capitalization fell from a peak of more than $100 billion in mid-2015, when the stock traded above $95 per share, to approximately $8.5 billion in late 2024 with shares around $9–10, representing a destruction of more than $90 billion of equity value. The collapse reflects a sustained decline in earnings power, a long sequence of failed strategic moves, and rising debt. Operating earnings have fallen from peak levels above $7 billion in 2018 to adjusted levels around $2–3 billion in 2024, with reported GAAP losses driven by massive impairments on the VillageMD and Summit Health-CityMD acquisitions (over $12 billion of charges in fiscal 2024 alone) and continuing opioid settlement charges (roughly $5 billion in cumulative accruals). Net debt remained around $32 billion at the end of fiscal 2024 against materially reduced earnings. The dividend was cut by 48% in January 2024, ending Walgreens' standing as a Dividend Aristocrat after 91 consecutive years of payments and 47 consecutive years of dividend increases. The decline accelerated through 2024 as Sycamore Partners take-private negotiations were ultimately consummated in March 2025.
Walgreens Boots Alliance took massive writedowns on the VillageMD primary-care investment beginning in fiscal year 2024. WBA had invested approximately $5.2 billion to acquire majority ownership of VillageMD in 2021–2022 and added $8.9 billion for Summit Health-CityMD in January 2023 (financed in part by VillageMD itself), bringing total investment in the US Healthcare segment to roughly $14 billion at peak. In November 2023 WBA recorded an initial $5.8 billion non-cash goodwill impairment on VillageMD as the primary-care business burned cash faster than projected. In fiscal Q3 2024 the company recorded an additional $3.0 billion impairment on Summit Health-CityMD as patient volumes and reimbursement underperformed expectations. Total cumulative impairments and other charges on the US Healthcare segment exceeded $12 billion across fiscal 2023 and 2024. WBA also announced on 22 October 2024 the closure of 160 VillageMD clinics in unprofitable markets, taking further restructuring charges, and began exploring divestitures of healthcare assets including a partial sale of VillageMD to Cigna's Evernorth, which was reportedly still in negotiation as of late 2024.
Walgreens Boots Alliance announced on 6 March 2025 a definitive agreement to be acquired by private equity firm Sycamore Partners in a take-private transaction valuing the company at up to approximately $23.7 billion including assumed debt, with cash consideration of $11.45 per WBA share at signing plus rights to up to an additional $3.00 per share contingent on monetization of the US Healthcare segment. The upfront cash equity value was approximately $10 billion. Sycamore, a New York-based retail-focused private equity firm led by Stefan Kaluzny, planned to break WBA into three operating businesses post-close: US Retail Pharmacy (Walgreens stores), International (Boots UK and other), and US Healthcare (VillageMD, Summit Health, Shields). Stefano Pessina, the executive chairman who personally owned roughly 17% of WBA, agreed to roll a substantial portion of his stake into the private vehicle and continue as a major investor. The transaction, expected to close in the third or fourth quarter of calendar 2025, ends WBA's status as a public company after 98 years of continuous listing (1927 IPO through 2025). The agreed price represented a roughly 30% discount to where WBA shares had traded just five years earlier.
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CorpDigest. "Walgreens Boots Alliance Revenue & Financials." CorpDigest, https://corpdigest.com/company/walgreens-boots-alliance/financials.<div style="font-family:system-ui,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:1.5;border:1px solid #e2e8f0;border-radius:8px;padding:12px 16px;max-width:520px"><strong>Walgreens Boots Alliance reported $148B in revenue (FY2024).</strong><br>Source: <a href="https://corpdigest.com/company/walgreens-boots-alliance/financials" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CorpDigest — Walgreens Boots Alliance financials</a></div>