Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Trading Up 12.6% – Should You Buy?

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) shares traded up 12.6% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $10.87 and last traded at $10.92. 11,188,442 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 57% from the average session volume of 26,082,805 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.70.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WBA has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $19.00 to $9.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target 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. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.19.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $9.08 billion, a PE ratio of -1.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.65. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $10.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.30.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 86,335,084 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $805,506,000 after acquiring an additional 2,279,495 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted 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 valued at $385,258,000 after acquiring an additional 6,569,223 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 32,572,567 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $303,902,000 after buying an additional 2,631,332 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,779,254 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $194,082,000 after buying an additional 1,020,587 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 19.9% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,155,138 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $122,737,000 after buying an additional 2,185,950 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.