Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Shares Down 0.3%

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)’s stock price traded down 0.3% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $11.29 and last traded at $11.40. 3,391,214 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 14,996,943 shares. The stock had previously closed at $11.43.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WBA has been the topic of several recent research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $22.00 to $13.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $20.00 to $13.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Walgreens Boots Alliance presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $17.71.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Up 0.7 %

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $15.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $19.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 0.65. The company has a market cap of $9.94 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.69, a PEG ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.72.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.05). Walgreens Boots Alliance had a negative net margin of 3.99% and a positive return on equity of 12.63%. The firm had revenue of $36.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $35.94 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.00 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 2.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.69%. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s dividend payout ratio is presently -14.84%.

Institutional Trading of Walgreens Boots Alliance

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 14.5% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 86,675,198 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $1,927,656,000 after purchasing an additional 10,962,030 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 57.5% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 29,061,021 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $630,334,000 after buying an additional 10,612,373 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,519,845 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $170,233,000 after acquiring an additional 613,847 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. raised its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 12.4% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 3,077,336 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $80,349,000 after acquiring an additional 339,143 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group grew its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 2,249,654 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $58,738,000 after buying an additional 27,634 shares in the last quarter. 58.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.