Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Now Covered by Analysts at StockNews.com

Equities researchers at StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) in a report issued on Wednesday. The firm set a “hold” rating on the pharmacy operator’s stock.

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

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Down 0.3 %

WBA stock opened at $11.12 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $10.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.09, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.62. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a fifty-two week low of $8.08 and a fifty-two week high of $22.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.30.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.13. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a negative net margin of 5.87% and a positive return on equity of 17.61%. The firm had revenue of $39.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $37.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.66 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Walgreens Boots Alliance will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Walgreens Boots Alliance

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 86,335,084 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $805,506,000 after purchasing an additional 2,279,495 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 18.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 42,997,580 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $385,258,000 after purchasing an additional 6,569,223 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 32,572,567 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $303,902,000 after purchasing an additional 2,631,332 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in 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 worth $194,082,000 after purchasing an additional 1,020,587 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew 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 valued at $122,737,000 after buying an additional 2,185,950 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

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.