DEERFIELD, Ill. (AP) _ Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (WBA) on Thursday reported a fiscal first-quarter loss of $308 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier.

On a per-share basis, the Deerfield, Illinois-based company said it had a loss of 36 cents. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were $1.22 per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.02 per share.

The largest U.S. drugstore chain posted revenue of $36.31 billion in the period, which also topped Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $34.93 billion.

Walgreens shares have climbed almost 8% since the beginning of the year. The stock has decreased 28% in the last 12 months.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on WBA at https://www.zacks.com/ap/WBA

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