Summit Financial LLC Invests $133,000 in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Summit Financial LLC purchased a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 14,298 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock, valued at approximately $133,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $385,258,000 after buying an additional 6,569,223 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance during the 4th quarter worth about $58,241,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP purchased a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance during the 3rd quarter valued at about $24,226,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 86,335,084 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $805,506,000 after purchasing an additional 2,279,495 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of 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 worth $122,737,000 after purchasing an additional 2,185,950 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Down 3.4 %

WBA stock opened at $10.68 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.30. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $10.75 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.97. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 12 month low of $8.08 and a 12 month high of $19.48. The company has a market capitalization of $9.23 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.67.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 17.61% and a negative net margin of 5.87%. The business had revenue of $39.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $37.40 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.66 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on WBA shares. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $10.59.

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.