Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.25 (NASDAQ:WBA)

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 21st will be paid a dividend of 0.25 per share by the pharmacy operator on Wednesday, June 12th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.65%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 20th.

Walgreens Boots Alliance has raised its dividend payment by an average of 1.3% per year over the last three years. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a dividend payout ratio of 31.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Walgreens Boots Alliance to earn $3.13 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 31.9%.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Trading Up 0.6 %

Walgreens Boots Alliance stock traded up $0.10 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $17.70. The stock had a trading volume of 6,592,036 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,083,050. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $20.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $21.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.27 billion, a PE ratio of -2.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.73. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a 12 month low of $17.49 and a 12 month high of $35.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 28th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.38. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 12.11% and a negative net margin of 4.18%. The business had revenue of $37.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $35.86 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.16 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance will post 3.23 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on WBA shares. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Bank of America dropped their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. TheStreet raised Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “d+” rating to a “c-” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $24.36.

Insider Transactions at Walgreens Boots Alliance

In other news, Director Inderpal S. Bhandari bought 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 11th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $18.05 per share, with a total value of $54,150.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 3,000 shares in the company, valued at $54,150. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Manmohan Mahajan purchased 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were acquired at an average price of $19.38 per share, for a total transaction of $116,280.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 166,969 shares in the company, valued at $3,235,859.22. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Inderpal S. Bhandari purchased 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 11th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $18.05 per share, for a total transaction of $54,150.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 3,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,150. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders acquired 13,456 shares of company stock valued at $270,423. Corporate insiders own 17.40% 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.