Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Stock Price Down 1.3%

Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) traded down 1.3% on Thursday . The company traded as low as $10.22 and last traded at $10.25. 3,432,129 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 15,397,354 shares. The stock had previously closed at $10.39.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WBA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $20.00 to $13.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $17.00 to $10.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 28th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $17.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $9.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $30.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $16.86.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Down 2.8 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market cap of $8.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.72. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $12.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.67.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.05). Walgreens Boots Alliance had a negative net margin of 3.99% and a positive return on equity of 12.63%. The company had revenue of $36.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $35.94 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.00 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 2.87 EPS for the current year.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.90%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 21st. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -14.84%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Walgreens Boots Alliance

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 57.5% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 29,061,021 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $630,334,000 after purchasing an additional 10,612,373 shares during the period. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC lifted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 98.8% in the 2nd quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 6,021,126 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $72,826,000 after acquiring an additional 2,992,648 shares in the last quarter. Newport Trust Company LLC acquired a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,028,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance during the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,816,000. Finally, Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance during the 1st quarter worth approximately $16,365,000. 58.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.