By Stephen Nakrosis

Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. are trading higher on Nasdaq Thursday, following news that Walgreens launched the Walgreens Advertising Group, which the company called "a modern, full-service, personalization-driven advertising offering rooted in insights and rich first-party data."

At 1:08 p.m. EST, the company's shares were trading 7.59% higher at $42.86. Volume at the time topped 8.8 million shares, above the 65-day average volume of some 7.8 million.

Year to date, the stock is down over 27%.

The company said the service, which it calls "wag," "delivers unique and custom-built audiences tailored to brand goals and objectives," and added, "Using technology and Walgreens deep-rooted customer relationships, audiences can be directly connected to advertising platforms enabling wag to deliver shopper reach across the digital ecosystem that surpasses the industry method of digital media buying."

--Write to Stephen Nakrosis at stephen.nakrosis@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

12-03-20 1333ET