Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Now Covered by Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) in a research note released on Tuesday. The firm issued a hold rating on the pharmacy operator’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on WBA. Truist Financial dropped their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Bank of America boosted their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $10.59.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Performance

Shares of WBA stock opened at $11.17 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.65 billion, a PE ratio of -1.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.62. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a 52-week low of $8.08 and a 52-week high of $22.05. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $10.89 and its 200 day moving average price is $9.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $39.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $37.40 billion. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 17.61% and a negative net margin of 5.87%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.66 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Walgreens Boots Alliance

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 86,335,084 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $805,506,000 after buying an additional 2,279,495 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 18.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 42,997,580 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $385,258,000 after purchasing an additional 6,569,223 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 32,572,567 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $303,902,000 after purchasing an additional 2,631,332 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,779,254 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $194,082,000 after purchasing an additional 1,020,587 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 19.9% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,155,138 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $122,737,000 after purchasing an additional 2,185,950 shares in the last quarter. 58.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Company Profile

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc operates as a healthcare, pharmacy, and retail company in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and internationally. It operates through three segments: U.S. Retail Pharmacy, International, and U.S. Healthcare. The U.S. Retail Pharmacy segment engages in operation of the retail drugstores, health and wellness services, specialty, and home delivery pharmacy services, which offers health and wellness, beauty, personal care and consumables, and general merchandise.