Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the twenty-three analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, twelve have given a hold recommendation, seven have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $76.38.
WBA has been the topic of a number of research reports. Loop Capital raised their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 29th. Leerink Swann cut their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group set a $85.00 price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 3rd. BidaskClub downgraded shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 8th. Finally, Pivotal Research cut their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $70.00 to $60.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 2nd.
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Shares of WBA stock traded up $0.05 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $64.98. 7,553,656 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,995,822. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a 52-week low of $59.07 and a 52-week high of $83.89. The firm has a market cap of $64.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.11, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.12.
Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 28th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $1.47 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $34.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.15 billion. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a net margin of 3.36% and a return on equity of 21.22%. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s quarterly revenue was up 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.33 EPS. analysts anticipate that Walgreens Boots Alliance will post 5.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 12th. Investors of record on Monday, August 20th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 17th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.71%. This is a boost from Walgreens Boots Alliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.37%.
In other Walgreens Boots Alliance news, COO Ornella Barra purchased 1,700,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 16th. The stock was bought at an average price of $65.15 per share, with a total value of $110,755,000.00. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Stefano Pessina purchased 1,697,438 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 16th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $63.92 per share, with a total value of $108,500,236.96. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 14.80% of the company’s stock.
A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. LSV Asset Management lifted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 101.9% during the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 7,426,687 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $486,225,000 after purchasing an additional 3,747,907 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd lifted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 1,062.9% during the 1st quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 2,711,135 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $177,499,000 after purchasing an additional 2,478,006 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 32.1% during the 1st quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 9,966,798 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $652,526,000 after purchasing an additional 2,419,053 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 1,196.1% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,660,860 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $108,737,000 after purchasing an additional 1,532,720 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thornburg Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 37.5% during the 1st quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,258,014 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $344,242,000 after purchasing an additional 1,433,645 shares during the last quarter. 60.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
About Walgreens Boots Alliance
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc operates as a pharmacy-led health and wellbeing company. It operates through three segments: Retail Pharmacy USA, Retail Pharmacy International, and Pharmaceutical Wholesale. The Retail Pharmacy USA segment sells prescription drugs and an assortment of general merchandise, including non-prescription drugs, beauty products, photo finishing, seasonal merchandise, greeting cards, and convenience foods through its retail drugstores and convenient care clinics.
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