Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Trading Down 0.6% After Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) dropped 0.6% during mid-day trading on Thursday 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 $8.53 and last traded at $8.60. Approximately 4,701,410 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 70% from the average daily volume of 15,869,683 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.65.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $20.00 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $17.00 to $10.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $11.00 to $7.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $35.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 1st. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $20.00 to $13.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $15.19.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Walgreens Boots Alliance

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of WBA. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 57.5% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 29,061,021 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $630,334,000 after acquiring an additional 10,612,373 shares during the period. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC grew its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 98.8% during the 2nd quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 6,021,126 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $72,826,000 after purchasing an additional 2,992,648 shares in the last quarter. Newport Trust Company LLC purchased a new stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance during the 2nd quarter worth $31,028,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance in the 4th quarter worth $29,816,000. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance in the 1st quarter valued at about $16,365,000. 58.59% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Up 1.0 %

The company has a quick ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $10.82 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $15.73. The company has a market capitalization of $7.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.30, a P/E/G ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.70.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.05). Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 12.63% and a negative net margin of 3.99%. The firm had revenue of $36.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $35.94 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.00 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 2.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 11.44%. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -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.