Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Upgraded to Buy at StockNews.com

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA – Get Rating) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Saturday.

Several other analysts also recently commented on WBA. Robert W. Baird downgraded shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $51.00 in a research report on Friday, April 1st. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $52.00 to $46.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 1st. Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $55.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 12th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $52.00 to $49.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $52.00 to $46.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Walgreens Boots Alliance has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $49.77.

Shares of WBA stock opened at $41.54 on Friday. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a one year low of $39.72 and a one year high of $55.82. The company’s 50-day moving average is $43.70 and its 200 day moving average is $47.15. The company has a market capitalization of $35.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.74.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 31st. The pharmacy operator reported $1.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.20. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a net margin of 4.62% and a return on equity of 19.15%. The company had revenue of $33.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.33 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.40 EPS. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Walgreens Boots Alliance will post 5.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In other news, major shareholder Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. sold 6,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total value of $900,000,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 52,854,867 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,928,230,050. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 17.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Investors Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Investors Financial Group LLC now owns 7,092 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $370,000 after acquiring an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. Veriti Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Veriti Management LLC now owns 13,534 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $706,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Bangor Savings Bank raised its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 31,213 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $1,628,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Carlton Hofferkamp & Jenks Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Carlton Hofferkamp & Jenks Wealth Management LLC now owns 19,989 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $1,019,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Centerpoint Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 20.7% in the fourth quarter. Centerpoint Advisors LLC now owns 1,190 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $62,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. 57.02% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Company Profile (Get Rating)

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc operates as a pharmacy-led health and beauty retail company. It operates through two segments, the United States and International. The United States segment sells prescription drugs and an assortment of retail products, including health, wellness, beauty, personal care, consumable, and general merchandise products through its retail drugstores.

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