Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.'s performance for third quarter of fiscal 2020 fell below our expectations, and we are revising our forecasts for the full year. We expect operating cost pressures from the pandemic will continue to weigh on Walgreens' operations in the next year, leading to further gross margin contraction and continued elevated leverage. As a result, we are revising the outlook to negative from stable and affirming our 'BBB' ratings on Walgreens. The negative outlook on Walgreens reflects the potential for a lower rating if sustained performance weakness drives leverage consistently above 4x. We view the company's recent action to halt its share repurchase program as credit positive. Walgreens cited several factors for its disappointing third quarter results. Despite
