Advisors Asset Management Inc. Grows Stock Position in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 8.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,123,668 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 91,551 shares during the quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance were worth $10,484,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 18.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 42,997,580 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $385,258,000 after acquiring an additional 6,569,223 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 43.6% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,969,188 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $98,284,000 after acquiring an additional 3,329,857 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP purchased a new stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance during the third quarter valued at approximately $24,226,000. Amundi increased its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 70.3% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 4,455,720 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $41,082,000 after purchasing an additional 1,839,045 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $9,685,000. 58.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WBA has been the topic of a number of research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a report on Tuesday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Four equities research 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Walgreens Boots Alliance presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.54.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of WBA opened at $11.26 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.64. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a one year low of $8.08 and a one year high of $22.05. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $10.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.77. The company has a market capitalization of $9.73 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.62.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 10th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $39.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.66 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.