Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.04 EPS

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) released its earnings results on Thursday. The pharmacy operator reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.04, Zacks reports. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 16.39% and a negative net margin of 3.80%.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of WBA opened at $11.31 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. The stock has a market cap of $9.79 billion, a PE ratio of -1.69, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.78. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a 1 year low of $8.08 and a 1 year high of $15.83. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $10.80.

Insider Activity at Walgreens Boots Alliance

In other news, Chairman Stefano Pessina purchased 832,258 shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance stock in a transaction on Sunday, April 27th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $11.01 per share, for a total transaction of $9,163,160.58. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 145,621,079 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,603,288,079.79. This represents a 0.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 17.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance stock. Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 93.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 50,349 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 24,265 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance were worth $562,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC. 58.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on WBA shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley restated an “underweight” rating on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a report on Thursday. Wall Street Zen began coverage on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research note on Thursday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Walgreens Boots Alliance presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $10.59.

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.