O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC Acquires 107,677 Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 143.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 182,983 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 107,677 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance were worth $3,969,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital World Investors boosted its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 29.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,448,648 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $481,694,000 after purchasing an additional 4,163,317 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,519,845 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $170,233,000 after purchasing an additional 613,847 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 339,143 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted 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 purchasing an additional 27,634 shares during the period. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 12.9% in the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 1,732,428 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $45,062,000 after purchasing an additional 197,370 shares in the last quarter. 58.59% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on WBA. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $11.00 to $7.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Bank of America reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $11.00 price target (down from $22.00) on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Truist Financial cut their target price on 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. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $35.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned 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 $16.86.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Price Performance

NASDAQ:WBA traded down $0.07 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $11.23. The company had a trading volume of 14,054,172 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,769,816. The company has a market capitalization of $9.69 billion, a PE ratio of -1.64, a P/E/G ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 52-week low of $10.69 and a 52-week high of $31.32. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $14.48 and its 200-day moving average price is $18.51.

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

Walgreens Boots Alliance Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 21st. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s dividend payout ratio is currently -14.84%.

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.