Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Stock Price Up 1.5% After Dividend Announcement

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)’s stock price shot up 1.5% during trading on Friday after the company announced a dividend. The stock traded as high as $9.58 and last traded at $9.48. 5,451,770 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 68% from the average session volume of 17,260,232 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.34.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 10.55%. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -9.99%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on WBA. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $20.00 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Walgreens Boots Alliance presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $12.88.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $8.20 billion, a PE ratio of -0.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $9.37 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $12.91.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.03. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 14.23% and a negative net margin of 5.85%. The business had revenue of $37.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $35.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.67 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Walgreens Boots Alliance

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 32,085 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $696,000 after buying an additional 597 shares during the period. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 60.4% during the 1st quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,130 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 802 shares during the period. Redwood Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Redwood Investment Management LLC now owns 99,661 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $2,162,000 after purchasing an additional 850 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 26,093 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $566,000 after purchasing an additional 888 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Inlet Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Inlet Private Wealth LLC now owns 47,820 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $578,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the period. 58.59% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.