S&P: Walgreen outlook negative

Standard & Poor's said it revised the outlook on Walgreen Co. to negative from stable and affirmed it's A+ corporate family rating.

"The outlook revision reflects our expectation that profitability will be under pressure due to slowing sales growth, resulting in credit protection measures that are even weaker for the rating," S&P analyst Ana Lai said in a statement.

Increased expenses and debt to support its rapid store growth as sales growth decelerated have contributed to weaker credit measures, with total debt-to-EBITDA ratio rising to 3.4x from 3.1x one year ago.

"We believe that a steep pull-back in consumer spending, slowing prescription sales growth and increased competition will likely continue to pressure sales and earnings in the near-to-intermediate term," Lai added.

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