Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) Short Interest Down 20.2% in March

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 36,690,000 shares, a decline of 20.2% from the March 15th total of 45,950,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 25,490,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.4 days. Currently, 5.2% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WBA opened at $10.89 on Monday. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a twelve month low of $8.08 and a twelve month high of $18.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $10.85 and a two-hundred day moving average of $10.15. The company has a market capitalization of $9.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.06, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.67.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 8th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $38.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $37.90 billion. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a negative net margin of 5.87% and a positive return on equity of 17.61%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.20 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Walgreens Boots Alliance will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Walgreens Boots Alliance

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Swedbank AB boosted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 45.3% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 595,828 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $5,559,000 after purchasing an additional 185,762 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance during the fourth quarter valued at about $326,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 2,599.7% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 622,703 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $5,810,000 after buying an additional 599,637 shares during the period. Orca Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the fourth quarter worth approximately $322,000. Finally, Sound Income Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 507,213 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $4,732,000 after acquiring an additional 23,373 shares during the period. 58.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WBA. Bank of America increased their price objective 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. Wolfe Research upgraded Walgreens Boots Alliance to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Royal Bank of Canada raised 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on Walgreens Boots Alliance in a report on Saturday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Four equities research 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.