Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) Short Interest Update

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 82,910,000 shares, a growth of 15.2% from the August 15th total of 71,970,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 20,900,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.0 days. Approximately 11.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $22.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $17.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $11.00 to $7.50 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $22.00 to $13.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $20.00 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $14.73.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Price Performance

Shares of WBA stock opened at $9.02 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.79 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.34, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.70. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $10.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $15.02. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a one year low of $8.46 and a one year high of $27.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.31.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 27th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.68 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $36.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $35.94 billion. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 12.63% and a negative net margin of 3.99%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.00 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Walgreens Boots Alliance will post 2.87 EPS for the current year.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.09%. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s payout ratio is currently -14.84%.

Institutional Trading of Walgreens Boots Alliance

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Quadrant Capital Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 33.8% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 7,494 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $196,000 after purchasing an additional 1,893 shares during the period. Syon Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the 4th quarter valued at $333,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the 4th quarter worth $297,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 38.9% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 280,545 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $7,325,000 after purchasing an additional 78,523 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sanders Morris Harris LLC boosted its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 373.3% during the first quarter. Sanders Morris Harris LLC now owns 112,398 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $2,438,000 after purchasing an additional 88,650 shares in the last quarter. 58.59% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.