Capital World Investors Sells 1,675,764 Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Capital World Investors lowered its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA - Free Report) by 46.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,946,930 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock after selling 1,675,764 shares during the quarter. Capital World Investors owned 0.23% of Walgreens Boots Alliance worth $18,165,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 86,335,084 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $805,506,000 after acquiring an additional 2,279,495 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 32,572,567 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $303,902,000 after acquiring an additional 2,631,332 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,779,254 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $194,082,000 after acquiring an additional 1,020,587 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 19.9% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,155,138 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $122,737,000 after acquiring an additional 2,185,950 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the 4th quarter worth approximately $58,241,000. Institutional investors own 58.59% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on WBA. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Walgreens Boots Alliance from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Wolfe Research raised Walgreens Boots Alliance to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Bank of America increased their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on Walgreens Boots Alliance in a report on Sunday. They issued a "hold" rating for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $10.59.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Price Performance

WBA stock traded down $0.02 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $11.01. 6,349,910 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 21,083,041. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $10.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $10.22. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 1-year low of $8.08 and a 1-year high of $18.83. The company has a market cap of $9.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.08, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 8th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.10. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 17.61% and a negative net margin of 5.87%. The firm had revenue of $38.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $37.90 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.20 EPS. The business's revenue was up 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 earnings per share 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.