Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) Position Increased by Insight Folios Inc

Insight Folios Inc increased its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 12.4% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 10,840 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after buying an additional 1,200 shares during the quarter. Insight Folios Inc’s holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance were worth $235,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on WBA shares. UBS Group cut their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $17.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $30.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $22.00 to $13.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $17.71.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Down 4.1 %

WBA stock opened at $11.10 on Friday. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a twelve month low of $11.10 and a twelve month high of $31.32. The company has a market cap of $9.58 billion, a PE ratio of -1.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.72. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $15.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $19.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.05). Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 12.63% and a negative net margin of 3.99%. The firm had revenue of $36.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $35.94 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.00 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 2.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 21st were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 20th. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s dividend payout ratio is -14.84%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Walgreens Boots Alliance news, Director Inderpal S. Bhandari purchased 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 11th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $18.05 per share, for a total transaction of $54,150.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 3,000 shares in the company, valued at $54,150. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 17.40% 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.