Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Buys 325,721 Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC grew its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA - Free Report) by 12.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,974,248 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock after purchasing an additional 325,721 shares during the period. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC owned about 0.34% of Walgreens Boots Alliance worth $27,750,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in WBA. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,234,000. Smith Moore & CO. boosted its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 29.3% in the fourth quarter. Smith Moore & CO. now owns 37,151 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $347,000 after purchasing an additional 8,422 shares in the last quarter. Prudential PLC increased its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 34.4% during the fourth quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 138,833 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $1,295,000 after buying an additional 35,553 shares during the last quarter. Unison Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Unison Advisors LLC now owns 43,226 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock valued at $403,000 after buying an additional 1,168 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Yoffe Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the fourth quarter worth about $179,000. Institutional investors own 58.59% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WBA has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating and decreased their price target for the company from $11.00 to $9.00 in a report on Friday, February 28th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $10.59.

Remove Ads

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Performance

WBA traded up $0.01 on Friday, hitting $10.70. 4,195,031 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,930,564. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $10.73 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $10.05. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $9.24 billion, a PE ratio of -1.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.67. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $8.08 and a 52 week high of $18.83.

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

Walgreens Boots Alliance Company Profile

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.