Hennessy Advisors Inc. Sells 119,300 Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 63.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 69,550 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after selling 119,300 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance were worth $649,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 43.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,969,188 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $98,284,000 after buying an additional 3,329,857 shares during the last quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc grew its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 76.6% in the third quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc now owns 440,483 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $3,947,000 after purchasing an additional 190,996 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 23.4% in the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 340,431 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $3,050,000 after purchasing an additional 64,586 shares during the period. Sasco Capital Inc. CT lifted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sasco Capital Inc. CT now owns 1,041,440 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $9,331,000 after purchasing an additional 124,950 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. boosted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 82.8% during the 3rd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 139,377 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $1,249,000 after purchasing an additional 63,149 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Performance

Walgreens Boots Alliance stock opened at $12.52 on Friday. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 52-week low of $8.08 and a 52-week high of $23.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $9.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.81 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.64.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.13. The firm 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 5.85% and a positive return on equity of 14.23%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.66 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 18th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.99%. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -9.77%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on WBA. Bank of America upped their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $7.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 11th. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $10.00 to $13.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $19.00 to $9.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.27.

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.