Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. recently reported full-year 2023 results and 2024 guidance that have fallen below our expectations. The company continues to see challenges in de-leveraging its balance sheet and sustaining strong cash flow generation amid a spate of transformative acquisition activity in recent years. Therefore, we lowered our ratings on Walgreens one notch to 'BBB-' from 'BBB' and maintained a negative outlook. The company's commercial paper rating is lowered to 'A-3' from 'A-2.' The negative outlook reflects our view that recent management changes, including for the chief executive officer (CEO), chief financial officer (CFO), and others, adds to the uncertainty of its health care strategy execution in the coming year, with retail units also seeing a variety of issues
