Pingora Partners LLC Acquires 84,672 Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Pingora Partners LLC raised its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA - Free Report) by 69.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 205,880 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock after acquiring an additional 84,672 shares during the quarter. Walgreens Boots Alliance makes up approximately 1.3% of Pingora Partners LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. Pingora Partners LLC's holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance were worth $1,921,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in WBA. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 86,335,084 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $805,506,000 after purchasing an additional 2,279,495 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 8.8% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,779,254 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $194,082,000 after purchasing an additional 1,020,587 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 19.9% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,155,138 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $122,737,000 after purchasing an additional 2,185,950 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the fourth quarter worth $58,241,000. Institutional investors own 58.59% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Chairman Stefano Pessina bought 832,258 shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance stock in a transaction dated Sunday, April 27th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $11.01 per share, with a total value of $9,163,160.58. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 145,621,079 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,603,288,079.79. The trade was a 0.57 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 17.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on WBA. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of 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 note on Friday, February 28th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a report on Sunday. They issued a "hold" rating on the stock. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $10.59.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of WBA traded up $0.04 on Wednesday, reaching $10.97. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,220,584 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,987,942. The company has a current ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a twelve month low of $8.08 and a twelve month high of $18.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.49 billion, a PE ratio of -1.07, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.67. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $10.96 and a 200-day moving average of $10.24.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.10. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a negative net margin of 5.87% and a positive return on equity of 17.61%. The business had revenue of $38.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $37.90 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.20 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 EPS 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.