Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) gapped down prior to trading on Friday after Truist Financial lowered their price target on the stock from $13.00 to $12.00. The stock had previously closed at $11.46, but opened at $9.95. Truist Financial currently has a hold rating on the stock. Walgreens Boots Alliance shares last traded at $9.69, with a volume of 17,331,138 shares changing hands.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on WBA. Bank of America upped their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $7.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $19.00 to $9.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.19.

Institutional Trading of Walgreens Boots Alliance

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WBA. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 18.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 42,997,580 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $385,258,000 after acquiring an additional 6,569,223 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 43.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,969,188 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $98,284,000 after purchasing an additional 3,329,857 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP acquired a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance during the 3rd quarter worth about $24,226,000. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC increased its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 6,955,880 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $62,325,000 after purchasing an additional 934,754 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 12.1% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 7,594,475 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $68,046,000 after purchasing an additional 817,762 shares during the last quarter. 58.59% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Down 10.2 %

The business has a 50-day moving average of $10.09 and a 200-day moving average of $9.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.64.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 10th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.13. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 17.61% and a negative net margin of 5.87%. The business had revenue of $39.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $37.40 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.66 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

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.