Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Shares Up 1%

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) shares shot up 1% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $10.97 and last traded at $10.93. 5,422,847 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 64% from the average session volume of 14,890,717 shares. The stock had previously closed at $10.82.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on WBA. Bank of America reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $11.00 target price (down previously from $22.00) on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $22.00 to $13.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $9.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 28th. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target 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. Four equities research 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 MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $17.71.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Up 1.5 %

The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $19.38. 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 capitalization of $9.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.70, a PEG ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.72.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 positive return on equity of 12.63% and a negative net margin of 3.99%. The company had revenue of $36.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $35.94 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.00 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 2.87 EPS for the current year.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.75%. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -14.84%.

Institutional Trading of Walgreens Boots Alliance

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WBA. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 10,962,030 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 57.5% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 29,061,021 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $630,334,000 after buying an additional 10,612,373 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 15.8% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 12,584,371 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $279,876,000 after buying an additional 1,720,228 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,816,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 1,985.1% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 889,546 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $23,226,000 after buying an additional 846,884 shares in the last quarter. 58.59% of the stock is currently 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.