Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by Bank of America

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA)‘s stock had its “underperform” rating restated by research analysts at Bank of America in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $11.00 target price on the pharmacy operator’s stock, down from their prior target price of $22.00. Bank of America‘s target price would suggest a potential downside of 12.84% from the company’s current price.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on WBA. SVB Leerink decreased their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Truist Financial restated a “hold” rating and set a $25.00 target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $16.00 to $13.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $22.00 to $17.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Four 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $21.79.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Up 3.5 %

Shares of WBA traded up $0.43 on Friday, hitting $12.62. 17,238,873 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,099,389. The company has a market capitalization of $10.89 billion, a PE ratio of -1.80, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a current ratio of 0.66. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $16.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $20.33. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a one year low of $11.68 and a one year high of $31.32.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.67 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $36.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $35.94 billion. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 12.11% and a negative net margin of 4.18%. The company’s revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.00 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance will post 3.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Trading of Walgreens Boots Alliance

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WBA. Fulton Bank N.A. boosted its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 107,071 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $2,796,000 after acquiring an additional 523 shares during the last quarter. Insight Folios Inc grew its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Insight Folios Inc now owns 9,640 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $252,000 after purchasing an additional 525 shares in the last quarter. Atlas Brown Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 1.8% in the first quarter. Atlas Brown Inc. now owns 31,593 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $685,000 after purchasing an additional 550 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc grew its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc now owns 11,866 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $310,000 after purchasing an additional 555 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Westpac Banking Corp grew its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 10.1% in the fourth quarter. Westpac Banking Corp now owns 6,100 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $159,000 after purchasing an additional 560 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

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.