Bridgewater Associates LP Takes $160,000 Position in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Bridgewater Associates LP acquired a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 17,841 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock, valued at approximately $160,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 89.8% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 349,464 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $7,580,000 after buying an additional 165,389 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 73.9% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 110,889 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $2,405,000 after buying an additional 47,136 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 221.6% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 11,275 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $136,000 after acquiring an additional 7,769 shares in the last quarter. DNB Asset Management AS lifted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 9.5% in the second quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 124,912 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $1,511,000 after purchasing an additional 10,844 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mather Group LLC. boosted its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 27.0% during the 2nd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 12,823 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $155,000 after acquiring an additional 2,730 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on WBA shares. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $11.00 to $7.50 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Truist Financial reduced their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $10.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 7th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $19.00 to $9.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $12.88.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Trading Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ:WBA opened at $8.95 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.74 billion, a P/E ratio of -0.89, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.37. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a one year low of $8.08 and a one year high of $27.05. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $9.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $11.07.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.03. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 14.23% and a negative net margin of 5.85%. The firm had revenue of $37.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $35.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.67 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.17%. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s payout ratio is presently -9.99%.

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.