Stock of the day: Walgreen Co (NYSE:WAG)

U.S. drugstore chain Walgreen Co (NYSE:WAG) is due to update the markets on April sales today. The stock share price has recovered well by doubling over the past nine months as the company continues to report further acqusitions as part of its growth strategy. Bloomberg has recently reported that Walgreen has agreed to buy 10 Carle RxExpress pharmacies adding to its portfolio of 7,697 drugstores. Short interest has increased since March from 0.5% to 1.6% of total shares outstanding on loan. A proportion of this increase may be due to dividend arbitrage given a dividend due date later this month.