Pallas Capital Advisors LLC Takes $241,000 Position in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Pallas Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 21,595 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock, valued at approximately $241,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Curat Global LLC purchased a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance during the first quarter worth about $27,000. Sentry Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance during the first quarter worth about $27,000. Riverview Trust Co boosted its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 123.8% during the fourth quarter. Riverview Trust Co now owns 2,874 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 1,590 shares during the last quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC boosted its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 79.5% during the fourth quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 2,928 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 1,297 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. 58.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on WBA. Wall Street Zen began coverage on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $11.00 to $9.00 in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $10.59.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Performance

Shares of WBA stock opened at $11.39 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $11.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $10.66. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $8.08 and a 52 week high of $16.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market cap of $9.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.78.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 8th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.10. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a negative net margin of 5.87% and a positive return on equity of 17.61%. The company had revenue of $38.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $37.90 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.20 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Walgreens Boots Alliance

In other Walgreens Boots Alliance news, Chairman Stefano Pessina acquired 832,258 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, April 27th. The stock was bought at an average price of $11.01 per share, with a total value of $9,163,160.58. Following the purchase, the chairman now owns 145,621,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,603,288,079.79. This trade represents a 0.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 17.50% of the company’s stock.

Walgreens Boots Alliance 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.