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 Stock Up 0.0 %
Shares of NASDAQ:WBA traded up $0.01 during trading on Friday, hitting $38.99. 5,611,833 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,931,304. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.29, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.60. 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 12-month low of $36.57 and a 12-month high of $55.00. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $39.92 and its 200-day moving average price is $44.01.
Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA - Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 30th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.01. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a net margin of 4.00% and a return on equity of 16.20%. The company had revenue of $32.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $32.23 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.51 EPS. Walgreens Boots Alliance's revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Walgreens Boots Alliance will post 5.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Walgreens Boots Alliance Increases Dividend
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 9th. Investors of record on Friday, August 19th will be given a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 18th. This is a positive change from Walgreens Boots Alliance's previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.92%. Walgreens Boots Alliance's payout ratio is currently 30.81%.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of analysts have recently weighed in on WBA shares. Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance to $49.00 in a report on Thursday, June 9th. Credit Suisse Group reduced their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $52.00 to $43.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 1st. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $50.00 to $45.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 24th. 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 note on Wednesday, July 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $46.00 to $42.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have issued a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Walgreens Boots Alliance presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $46.25.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other news, major shareholder Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. sold 6,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total transaction of $900,000,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 52,854,867 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,928,230,050. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 17.40% of the company's stock.
