Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Shares Gap Down – Here’s Why

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) gapped down prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $12.52, but opened at $11.72. Walgreens Boots Alliance shares last traded at $11.10, with a volume of 9,135,996 shares.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on WBA. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $19.00 to $9.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America lifted their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $13.27.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Performance

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’s 50 day moving average price is $9.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.15 billion, a PE ratio of -1.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.64.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 10th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.13. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 17.61% and a negative net margin of 5.87%. The business had revenue of $39.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $37.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.66 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.59 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Walgreens Boots Alliance

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Amalgamated Bank boosted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 13.2% during the 2nd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 217,597 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $2,632,000 after acquiring an additional 25,439 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 19.5% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 52,400 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $633,000 after acquiring an additional 8,538 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc grew its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 8.4% during the second quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 308,736 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $3,734,000 after buying an additional 24,041 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 76.2% during the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 24,726 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $299,000 after buying an additional 10,696 shares during the period. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 60.5% in the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 140,441 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $1,699,000 after acquiring an additional 52,924 shares in the last quarter. 58.59% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.