Plato Investment Management Ltd Makes New Investment in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 95,864 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock, valued at approximately $898,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WBA. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 43.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,969,188 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $98,284,000 after purchasing an additional 3,329,857 shares during the period. Altrius Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 76.6% in the 3rd quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc now owns 440,483 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $3,947,000 after purchasing an additional 190,996 shares during the period. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 45.3% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 595,828 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $5,559,000 after purchasing an additional 185,762 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 23.4% during the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 340,431 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $3,050,000 after buying an additional 64,586 shares during the period. Finally, Sasco Capital Inc. CT raised its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sasco Capital Inc. CT now owns 1,041,440 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $9,331,000 after buying an additional 124,950 shares during the period. 58.59% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on WBA shares. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Evercore ISI raised their target price 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. Bank of America raised their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $11.00 to $9.00 in a report on Friday. Finally, 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 report on Friday, January 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.54.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Price Performance

Shares of WBA opened at $10.26 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $8.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.00, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.65. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $10.52 and a 200-day moving average of $9.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $8.08 and a 52 week high of $22.05.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $39.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 business’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.66 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

About Walgreens Boots Alliance

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.