Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd Increases Holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 68,942 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after buying an additional 1,926 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd’s holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance were worth $643,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. First Financial Corp IN grew its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 49.2% during the 4th quarter. First Financial Corp IN now owns 2,685 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 885 shares during the period. TD Private Client Wealth LLC increased its position 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 worth $29,000 after buying an additional 3,208 shares during the last quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Eastern Bank purchased a new stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance during the third quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Institutional investors own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Walgreens Boots Alliance presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $13.19.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Performance

Walgreens Boots Alliance stock opened at $9.36 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.79. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a twelve month low of $8.08 and a twelve month high of $22.96. The company has a market capitalization of $8.09 billion, a PE ratio of -0.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last issued 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 during 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%. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.66 EPS. Research analysts expect that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 EPS for the current 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.