Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) gapped up before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $11.04, but opened at $11.70. Walgreens Boots Alliance shares last traded at $11.43, with a volume of 4,180,300 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WBA has been the subject of a number of research reports. Bank of America boosted their target price 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. Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $11.00 to $9.00 in a report on Friday. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.54.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $9.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.04, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $10.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $9.72.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last released its earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.13. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a negative net margin of 5.87% and a positive return on equity of 17.61%. The company had revenue of $39.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $37.40 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.66 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Walgreens Boots Alliance

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WBA. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 18.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 42,997,580 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $385,258,000 after purchasing an additional 6,569,223 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance during the 4th quarter valued at about $58,241,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 186.3% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 7,740,100 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $72,215,000 after acquiring an additional 5,036,300 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of 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 worth $98,284,000 after buying an additional 3,329,857 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 8.8% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 32,572,567 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $303,902,000 after buying an additional 2,631,332 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

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.