Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Reduce" from Brokerages

Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average recommendation of "Reduce" from the twelve analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $10.59.

WBA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research raised shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Wall Street Zen initiated coverage on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. They issued a "hold" rating on the stock. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating and dropped their target price for the company from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Price Performance

Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance stock traded up $0.04 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $11.35. The stock had a trading volume of 8,995,592 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,702,285. The stock's 50 day moving average is $11.16 and its 200 day moving average is $10.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.82 billion, a PE ratio of -1.70, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.78. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a twelve month low of $8.08 and a twelve month high of $16.25. The company has a current ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 8th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $38.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $37.90 billion. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a negative net margin of 3.80% and a positive return on equity of 16.39%. Walgreens Boots Alliance's revenue was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.20 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Walgreens Boots Alliance will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Chairman Stefano Pessina bought 832,258 shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance stock in a transaction dated Sunday, April 27th. The stock was bought at an average price of $11.01 per share, for a total transaction of $9,163,160.58. Following the purchase, the chairman now 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 purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 17.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of WBA. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of 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 worth $805,506,000 after purchasing an additional 2,279,495 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 32,572,567 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock valued at $303,902,000 after buying an additional 2,631,332 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in 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 valued at $194,082,000 after acquiring an additional 1,020,587 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 10.8% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,580,827 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock valued at $162,868,000 after acquiring an additional 1,425,689 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 18.8% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,896,742 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock valued at $83,007,000 after buying an additional 1,407,973 shares in the last quarter. 58.59% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.