Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. operates as a pharmacy-led health and beauty retail company. It operates through two segments, the United States and International. The United States segment sells prescription drugs and an assortment of retail products, including health, wellness, beauty, personal care, consumable, and general merchandise products through its retail drugstores. It also provides central specialty pharmacy services and mail services. As of August 31, 2021, this segment operated 8,965 retail stores under the Walgreens and Duane Reade brands in the United States; and five specialty pharmacies. The International segment sells prescription drugs; and health and wellness, beauty, personal care, and other consumer products through its pharmacy-led health and beauty retail stores and optical practices, as well as through boots.com and an integrated mobile application. It also engages in pharmaceutical wholesaling and distribution business in Germany. As of August 31, 2021, this segment operated 4,031 retail stores under the Boots, Benavides, and Ahumada in the United Kingdom, Thailand, Norway, the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Mexico, and Chile; and 548 optical practices, including 160 on a franchise basis. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. was founded in 1901 and is based in Deerfield, Illinois.
Walgreens Boots Alliance Trading Down 2.8 %
NASDAQ:WBA opened at $40.87 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.43. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a fifty-two week low of $36.57 and a fifty-two week high of $55.00. The stock's 50-day moving average is $39.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $43.45. The stock has a market cap of $35.32 billion, a PE ratio of 6.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 0.60.
Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA - Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 30th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $32.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $32.23 billion. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a return on equity of 16.20% and a net margin of 4.00%. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.51 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance will post 5.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Walgreens Boots Alliance Increases Dividend
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 9th. Investors of record on Friday, August 19th will be paid a $0.48 dividend. This is a boost from Walgreens Boots Alliance's previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 18th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.70%. Walgreens Boots Alliance's payout ratio is presently 30.81%.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $43.00 to $39.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 6th. Credit Suisse Group cut their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $52.00 to $43.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 1st. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $50.00 to $42.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 1st. TheStreet downgraded Walgreens Boots Alliance from a "b-" rating to a "c+" rating in a report on Monday, May 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $46.00 to $42.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $46.25.