Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Upgraded at Wolfe Research

Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) to a hold rating in a report issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

WBA has been the topic of several other reports. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $12.63.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Down 3.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ WBA opened at $11.04 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.71. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a 12 month low of $8.08 and a 12 month high of $22.05. The company has a current ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.54 billion, a PE ratio of -1.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.64.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.13. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a negative net margin of 5.87% and a positive return on equity of 17.61%. The company had revenue of $39.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $37.40 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.66 earnings per share. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Walgreens Boots Alliance will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WBA. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 86,335,084 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $805,506,000 after acquiring an additional 2,279,495 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 18.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 42,997,580 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $385,258,000 after purchasing an additional 6,569,223 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 32,572,567 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $303,902,000 after purchasing an additional 2,631,332 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,779,254 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $194,082,000 after purchasing an additional 1,020,587 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 19.9% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,155,138 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $122,737,000 after buying an additional 2,185,950 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 58.59% 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.