Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Stock Price Down 0.8%

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) dropped 0.8% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $15.47 and last traded at $15.58. Approximately 2,002,296 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 85% from the average daily volume of 13,009,321 shares. The stock had previously closed at $15.70.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WBA has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $16.00 to $13.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. SVB Leerink decreased their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $18.00 to $17.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $23.07.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.32. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $16.76 and its 200 day moving average is $20.36. The firm has a market cap of $13.41 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.78.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 28th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.38. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a negative net margin of 4.18% and a positive return on equity of 12.11%. The firm had revenue of $37.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $35.86 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.16 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 3.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 21st were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 20th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.44%. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s dividend payout ratio is currently -14.29%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Walgreens Boots Alliance

In other Walgreens Boots Alliance news, CFO Manmohan Mahajan bought 6,000 shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $19.38 per share, with a total value of $116,280.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 166,969 shares in the company, valued at $3,235,859.22. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Walgreens Boots Alliance news, CFO Manmohan Mahajan bought 6,000 shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $19.38 per share, with a total value of $116,280.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 166,969 shares in the company, valued at $3,235,859.22. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Inderpal S. Bhandari acquired 3,000 shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 11th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $18.05 per share, with a total value of $54,150.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 3,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $54,150. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 17.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Walgreens Boots Alliance

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Verity Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the first quarter worth $411,000. Cetera Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 73.9% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 110,889 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $2,405,000 after purchasing an additional 47,136 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 89.8% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 349,464 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $7,580,000 after purchasing an additional 165,389 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance during the first quarter worth $16,365,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance during the first quarter worth $145,000. 58.59% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Walgreens Boots Alliance

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.