fall@ (Adds details on challenges, analyst comments, background; Updates shares)
April 2 (Reuters) - Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc cut its 2019 profit growth forecast on Tuesday as the drugstore chain struggles with falling generic drug prices in a crowded market, sending its shares down 8 percent.
The company also reported a quarterly profit that missed Wall Street estimates and said macro trends had resulted in the "most difficult quarter" for the company since the merger of Alliance Boots and Walgreen.
The company reduced its adjusted earnings growth forecast for fiscal 2019 from a range of 7 percent to 12 percent growth to roughly flat, at constant currency rates.
The magnitude of the cut surprised some Wall Street analysts, who had expected it after the company had warned about increased competition and reimbursement pressures at its pharmacies.
"This was truly a terrible print, as most metrics missed materially," Evercore ISI analyst Ross Muken said in a note.
Muken said the deterioration in U.S. pharmacy is particularly concerning and does not expect the management to be able to instill confidence in investors during the conference call.
Drug retailers including Walgreens and CVS Health Corp have long suffered from lower reimbursement rates at their pharmacies. CVS shares were trading down 2.2 percent at $53 premarket.
"We are going to be more aggressive in our response to these rapidly shifting trends," Walgreens Chief Executive Officer Stefano Pessina said.
The company said it would be pushing forward on the execution of its partnership initiatives.
Analysts have repeatedly questioned Walgreens' strategy of signing partnerships unlike many of its rivals that have chosen to ink multi-billion dollar merger deals to stem the impact from rising pricing pressures.
Walgreens now expects to save more than $1.5 billion from its previously announced cost-savings program that includes consolidation of warehouses and shutting stores.
Net income attributable to Walgreens fell 14 percent to $1.16 billion in the second quarter ended February 28.
Excluding items, the company earned $1.64 per share, missing analysts' expectations of $1.72 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Revenue rose 4.6 percent to $34.53 billion, but was shy of the average estimate of $34.56 billion.
Walgreens, which replaced General Electric Co on the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average Index last year, is the worst performing stock on the index with year-to-date losses of 7.1 percent as of Monday's close.
Shares of the Deerfield, Illinois-based company fell more than 8 percent to $58.34 before the bell. (Reporting by Aakash Jagadeesh Babu and Saumya Sibi Joseph in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Sweta Singh)