Huntington National Bank Sells 5,000 Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Huntington National Bank lessened its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 20.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 18,885 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after selling 5,000 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank’s holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance were worth $176,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 5.2% during 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. Diametric Capital LP bought a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $140,000. Summit Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $133,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 35.5% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,275,221 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $11,898,000 after acquiring an additional 334,235 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 204,979 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $1,912,000 after acquiring an additional 11,453 shares during the period. 58.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Bank of America boosted their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research note on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Walgreens Boots Alliance has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $10.59.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Price Performance

NASDAQ:WBA opened at $10.68 on Friday. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $8.08 and a 52 week high of $19.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.64. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $10.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.98. The firm has a market cap of $9.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.67.

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

Walgreens Boots Alliance 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.