Is This a Sign Walgreens Boots Alliance's Dividend Is in Danger?

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ: WBA) offers an incredibly high dividend yield of 7.6%. In comparison, the S&P 500 averages a yield of only 1.5%. Walgreens' high yield isn't because the company has been aggressively raising its payouts. Instead, it's because the share price has been crashing; it's down 66% over the past five years. The stock is now trading at levels it hasn't been at in over a decade.

Investors appear to be worried about the future of the business and the safety of the dividend. And there's one thing that didn't happen recently that could further stoke concern.

Walgreens didn't raise its dividend in July

Walgreens has been lifting its dividend payments for decades. On July 13, 2022, the company announced a 0.5% boost to its dividend. That lengthened its streak to 47 straight years of increases. This past July, however, the company didn't extend that streak to 48 years.

It's still possible for Walgreens to announce a rate hike, but for companies with consistent dividend growth streaks, they usually make the announcements around the same time. July is typically when Walgreens declares dividend increases. It's possible that it might still raise its dividend later in the year, which would technically keep its streak going, but it's definitely noteworthy that it didn't follow its regular pattern.