Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Coverage Initiated at StockNews.com

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) in a report published on Saturday morning. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the pharmacy operator’s stock.

WBA has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on 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 increased their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Walgreens Boots Alliance has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $10.59.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Down 0.2 %

Walgreens Boots Alliance stock opened at $10.87 on Friday. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a fifty-two week low of $8.08 and a fifty-two week high of $18.83. 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 has a market capitalization of $9.40 billion, a PE ratio of -1.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.67. The company’s 50-day moving average is $10.88 and its 200-day moving average is $10.17.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 8th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.10. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 17.61% and a negative net margin of 5.87%. The company had revenue of $38.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $37.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.20 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Walgreens Boots Alliance will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position 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. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 8.8% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 32,572,567 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $303,902,000 after buying an additional 2,631,332 shares during 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 worth $194,082,000 after purchasing an additional 1,020,587 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 19.9% during the fourth 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. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 18.8% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,896,742 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $83,007,000 after acquiring an additional 1,407,973 shares during the last quarter. 58.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.