Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) Shares Purchased by National Pension Service

National Pension Service lifted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA – Get Rating) by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,603,680 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 100,280 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned about 0.19% of Walgreens Boots Alliance worth $50,596,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WBA. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 104.6% during the first quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 36,922 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $1,752,000 after acquiring an additional 18,879 shares during the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 31.1% during the first quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 20,791 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $931,000 after acquiring an additional 4,931 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 27.9% during the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,569 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $339,000 after acquiring an additional 1,651 shares during the last quarter. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. increased its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 0.5% during the first quarter. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. now owns 63,483 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $2,842,000 after acquiring an additional 310 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 14.2% during the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 467,533 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $20,932,000 after acquiring an additional 58,184 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 56.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WBA has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group raised their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance to $40.00 in a research note on Monday, November 28th. Cowen upgraded Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $43.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 22nd. Mizuho raised their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $36.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 14th. Loop Capital initiated coverage on Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research report on Wednesday, February 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 price target for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.43.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ WBA opened at $33.54 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $28.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The business has a 50-day moving average of $35.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.50. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.39 and a 1 year high of $48.62.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 5th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $33.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.04 billion. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 13.57% and a negative net margin of 2.24%. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.68 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 16th were issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 15th. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -55.81%.

About Walgreens Boots Alliance

(Get Rating)

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc engages in the provision of healthcare and retail pharmacy services. It operates through the following segments: United States Retail Pharmacy, International, and United States Healthcare. The US Retail Pharmacy segment includes the operation of retail drugstores, health and wellness services, specialty and home delivery pharmacy services, and equity method investment.