Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) Receives Consensus Rating of "Reduce" from Analysts

Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA - Get Free Report) have been given an average recommendation of "Reduce" by the twelve analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $10.59.

WBA has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Bank of America raised their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on Walgreens Boots Alliance in a report on Thursday. They set a "hold" rating on the stock.

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Walgreens Boots Alliance Trading Down 3.4 %

WBA stock opened at $10.68 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a twelve month low of $8.08 and a twelve month high of $19.48. The company has a market cap of $9.23 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.04, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.67. The business has a fifty day moving average of $10.75 and a 200-day moving average of $9.98.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.13. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 17.61% and a negative net margin of 5.87%. The company had revenue of $39.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $37.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.66 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Walgreens Boots Alliance will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 18.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 42,997,580 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $385,258,000 after buying an additional 6,569,223 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the 4th quarter worth approximately $58,241,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 186.3% during the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 7,740,100 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock valued at $72,215,000 after acquiring an additional 5,036,300 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 8.8% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 32,572,567 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock valued at $303,902,000 after purchasing an additional 2,631,332 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Investments LP boosted its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 101.2% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 4,595,507 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $42,876,000 after buying an additional 2,311,806 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.59% of the company's stock.

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.

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