Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Earns Hold Rating from Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the pharmacy operator’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on WBA. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Wolfe Research raised Walgreens Boots Alliance to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Bank of America upped 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. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $10.59.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Price Performance

Shares of WBA stock opened at $11.19 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $10.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.67 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.64. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a 52-week low of $8.08 and a 52-week high of $21.74.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WBA. Brooklyn Investment Group boosted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 21.1% in the fourth quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 4,757 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 830 shares in the last quarter. First Financial Corp IN boosted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 49.2% in the 4th quarter. First Financial Corp IN now owns 2,685 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 885 shares in the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC grew its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 12,893 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $120,000 after buying an additional 1,084 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC grew its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 23,815 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $222,000 after buying an additional 1,118 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harbour Investments Inc. increased its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 28,389 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $265,000 after buying an additional 1,165 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

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.