Alliancebernstein L.P. Acquires 334,235 Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA - Free Report) by 35.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,275,221 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock after purchasing an additional 334,235 shares during the quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned 0.15% of Walgreens Boots Alliance worth $11,898,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. First Financial Corp IN grew its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 49.2% during the fourth quarter. First Financial Corp IN now owns 2,685 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 885 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Riverview Trust Co boosted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 123.8% in the fourth quarter. Riverview Trust Co now owns 2,874 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 1,590 shares in the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Finally, TD Private Client Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 8,670.3% in the third quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 3,245 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 3,208 shares during the last quarter. 58.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WBA has been the subject of several research reports. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Walgreens Boots Alliance from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Walgreens Boots Alliance has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $10.59.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:WBA traded down $0.04 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $10.88. 1,144,993 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,911,535. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $10.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $10.09. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $8.08 and a 52 week high of $18.83. 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 company has a market cap of $9.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.67.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 8th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $38.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $37.90 billion. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a negative net margin of 5.87% and a positive return on equity of 17.61%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.20 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.