Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) Shares Sold by Corton Capital Inc.

Corton Capital Inc. lessened its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA - Free Report) by 77.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,266 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock after selling 56,962 shares during the period. Corton Capital Inc.'s holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance were worth $152,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of WBA. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $58,241,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 2,631,332 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 86,335,084 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock valued at $805,506,000 after purchasing an additional 2,279,495 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 2,185,950 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 70.3% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 4,455,720 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock valued at $41,082,000 after purchasing an additional 1,839,045 shares in the last quarter. 58.59% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Chairman Stefano Pessina purchased 832,258 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Sunday, April 27th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $11.01 per share, for a total transaction of $9,163,160.58. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 145,621,079 shares in the company, valued at $1,603,288,079.79. This represents a 0.57% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 17.50% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on WBA shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Walgreens Boots Alliance from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. 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 note on Monday, January 13th. StockNews.com started coverage on Walgreens Boots Alliance in a report on Monday, May 5th. They issued a "hold" rating for the company. Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Walgreens Boots Alliance has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $10.59.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Up 1.6%

WBA stock traded up $0.18 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $11.40. The company had a trading volume of 17,403,952 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,085,064. 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, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $8.08 and a fifty-two week high of $18.83. The company has a market capitalization of $9.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.77. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $10.30.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $38.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $37.90 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.20 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.