Summit Securities Group LLC Acquires Shares of 53,400 Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 53,400 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock, valued at approximately $498,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WBA. First Financial Corp IN grew its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 49.2% in the 4th quarter. First Financial Corp IN now owns 2,685 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 885 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Riverview Trust Co raised its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 123.8% during the fourth quarter. Riverview Trust Co now owns 2,874 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 1,590 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 8,670.3% in the third quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 3,245 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 3,208 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WBA has been the topic of several recent research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $11.00 to $9.00 in a report on Friday, February 28th. StockNews.com started coverage on Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research report on Wednesday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, 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 research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $10.59.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Performance

Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance stock opened at $11.19 on Friday. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 12 month low of $8.08 and a 12 month high of $21.74. The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock has a market cap of $9.67 billion, a PE ratio of -1.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.62. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.91.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last released its 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 company had revenue of $39.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $37.40 billion. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 17.61% and a negative net margin of 5.87%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.66 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Walgreens Boots Alliance 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.