Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) Receives $24.36 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the fifteen ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $24.36.

Several brokerages have weighed in on WBA. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $25.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Bank of America decreased their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Leerink Partnrs reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research report on Monday, February 26th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 1st.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WBA opened at $17.60 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $21.81. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a 1-year low of $17.51 and a 1-year high of $35.38. The stock has a market cap of $15.18 billion, a PE ratio of -2.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.73.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 28th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.38. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 12.11% and a negative net margin of 4.18%. The business had revenue of $37.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $35.86 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.16 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance will post 3.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Inderpal S. Bhandari bought 3,000 shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 11th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $18.05 per share, with a total value of $54,150.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 3,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $54,150. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Manmohan Mahajan bought 6,000 shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $19.38 per share, with a total value of $116,280.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer now directly owns 166,969 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,235,859.22. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Inderpal S. Bhandari bought 3,000 shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 11th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $18.05 per share, with a total value of $54,150.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 3,000 shares in the company, valued at $54,150. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders bought 13,456 shares of company stock valued at $270,423. 17.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Walgreens Boots Alliance

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of WBA. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 14.5% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 86,675,198 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $1,927,656,000 after acquiring an additional 10,962,030 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 29.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,448,648 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $481,694,000 after acquiring an additional 4,163,317 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 21.5% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 17,026,420 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $378,668,000 after acquiring an additional 3,013,807 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 15.8% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 12,584,371 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $279,876,000 after acquiring an additional 1,720,228 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,816,000. Institutional investors own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

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.