Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Sets New 52-Week Low on Analyst Downgrade

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) shares hit a new 52-week low during trading on Wednesday after Bank of America lowered their price target on the stock from $11.00 to $7.50. Bank of America currently has an underperform rating on the stock. Walgreens Boots Alliance traded as low as $8.90 and last traded at $8.90, with a volume of 159283 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $8.97.

WBA has been the topic of several other research reports. UBS Group cut their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $17.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $20.00 to $13.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $22.00 to $13.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $20.00 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $17.00 to $10.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 28th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $15.19.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WBA. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the 2nd quarter worth $34,000. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 4.4% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 364,734 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $4,411,000 after acquiring an additional 15,270 shares during the last quarter. William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance during the second quarter worth approximately $821,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. increased its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 46.1% during the second quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 76,228 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $922,000 after acquiring an additional 24,062 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 31.6% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 132,456 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $1,602,000 after buying an additional 31,772 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Down 3.6 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market cap of $7.47 billion, a PE ratio of -1.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $10.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $15.78.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last posted 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). The company 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 12.63% and a negative net margin of 3.99%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.00 EPS. Analysts expect that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 2.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.56%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 21st. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s dividend payout ratio is currently -14.84%.

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.