Wall Street Zen Begins Coverage on Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA)

Wall Street Zen assumed coverage on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA - Free Report) in a research note released on Wednesday. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the pharmacy operator's stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research raised Walgreens Boots Alliance to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective 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, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Walgreens Boots Alliance from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $9.00 in a report on Friday, February 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Walgreens Boots Alliance presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $10.59.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Performance

WBA traded down $0.07 on Wednesday, reaching $11.17. 9,768,258 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,956,056. The company's 50-day moving average price is $11.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $10.44. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a fifty-two week low of $8.08 and a fifty-two week high of $16.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.66 billion, a PE ratio of -1.09, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.77.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 8th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm posted $1.20 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Walgreens Boots Alliance

In other Walgreens Boots Alliance news, Chairman Stefano Pessina purchased 832,258 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, April 27th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $11.01 per share, for a total transaction of $9,163,160.58. Following the purchase, the chairman now directly owns 145,621,079 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,603,288,079.79. This trade represents a 0.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 17.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Walgreens Boots Alliance

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Bluefin Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the 1st quarter valued at about $455,000. Focus Partners Wealth increased its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 6.5% during the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 152,211 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $1,700,000 after buying an additional 9,236 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP increased its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 4,739.3% during the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 2,085,596 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $23,296,000 after buying an additional 2,042,499 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 93.0% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 50,349 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $562,000 after buying an additional 24,265 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MBB Public Markets I LLC purchased a new stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance during the 1st quarter worth approximately $318,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.59% of the company's stock.

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.