Walgreens swings to loss on weakness at Boots

Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance are getting roughed up Thursday after the drug store chain swung to a $1.7 billion quarterly loss from a more than billion dollar profit a year ago.

The loss - forcing Walgreens to suspend share buybacks.

The business is getting dragged down by weakness at the company's UK division Boots. That unit is facing another round of job cuts, this time around 4,000 and more store closures, as Walgreen’s looks to slash costs.

But that's not Walgreen's only problem.

Here in the U.S.: the combination of lower reimbursement rates for prescription drugs, low generic drug prices and online competition hampered quarterly revenues. Sales companywide were flat.

And the company's outlook is far from bright. One of the rare companies to even offer a full-year earnings forecast - it came in well below analyst estimates.

The stock was down roughly 10 percent in Thursday trade.