Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Trading Down 4.1% Following Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA - Get Free Report) fell 4.1% on Wednesday after Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on the stock from $19.00 to $9.00. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a hold rating on the stock. Walgreens Boots Alliance traded as low as $9.26 and last traded at $9.33. 10,812,812 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 37% from the average session volume of 17,231,242 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.73.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on WBA. Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $10.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $22.00 to $13.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Bank of America dropped their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $11.00 to $7.50 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Walgreens Boots Alliance has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $12.88.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 57.5% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 29,061,021 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock valued at $630,334,000 after purchasing an additional 10,612,373 shares during the period. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC lifted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 98.8% in the second quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 6,021,126 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock valued at $72,826,000 after acquiring an additional 2,992,648 shares in the last quarter. Newport Trust Company LLC purchased a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the second quarter valued at about $31,028,000. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the first quarter worth about $16,365,000. Finally, Minneapolis Portfolio Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance during the first quarter worth about $13,710,000. Institutional investors own 58.59% of the company's stock.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The company has a market cap of $8.07 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.70. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $9.37 and a 200-day moving average of $12.91.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.03. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a negative net margin of 5.85% and a positive return on equity of 14.23%. The company had revenue of $37.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $35.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.67 EPS. Walgreens Boots Alliance's revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.57 EPS for the current 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.