Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) Position Trimmed by B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.

B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 50.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 44,077 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after selling 44,826 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance were worth $1,151,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of WBA. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 14.5% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 86,675,198 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $1,927,656,000 after buying an additional 10,962,030 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 29.1% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,448,648 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $481,694,000 after purchasing an additional 4,163,317 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 15.8% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 12,584,371 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $279,876,000 after purchasing an additional 1,720,228 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,519,845 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $170,233,000 after purchasing an additional 613,847 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. boosted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 12.4% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 3,077,336 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $80,349,000 after buying an additional 339,143 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Walgreens Boots Alliance

In other news, Director Inderpal S. Bhandari purchased 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $18.05 per share, for a total transaction of $54,150.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,150. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Walgreens Boots Alliance news, Director Inderpal S. Bhandari bought 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $18.05 per share, with a total value of $54,150.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 3,000 shares in the company, valued at $54,150. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Manmohan Mahajan purchased 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $19.38 per share, for a total transaction of $116,280.00. Following the purchase, the chief financial officer now owns 166,969 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,235,859.22. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 17.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WBA has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $18.00 to $17.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 3rd. Bank of America cut their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $16.00 to $13.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 31st. Finally, Truist Financial reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $23.57.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Up 6.3 %

Walgreens Boots Alliance stock opened at $16.11 on Thursday. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $14.62 and a 12-month high of $32.89. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $16.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $20.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 28th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.38. The business had revenue of $37.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $35.86 billion. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a negative net margin of 4.18% and a positive return on equity of 12.11%. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.16 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 3.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 21st were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 20th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.21%. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s payout ratio is presently -14.29%.

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.