Swiss National Bank Cuts Position in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Swiss National Bank lessened its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 4.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,072,900 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after selling 98,300 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank owned 0.24% of Walgreens Boots Alliance worth $19,340,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 18.0% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 19.9% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,155,138 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $122,737,000 after acquiring an additional 2,185,950 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 12.1% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 7,594,475 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $68,046,000 after acquiring an additional 817,762 shares during the last quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC grew its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 6,955,880 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $62,325,000 after acquiring an additional 934,754 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,432,383 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $50,684,000 after acquiring an additional 478,061 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of WBA stock opened at $11.17 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $9.65 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.09, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.62. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 1-year low of $8.08 and a 1-year high of $22.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.30. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $10.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.79.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 10th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $39.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $37.40 billion. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a negative net margin of 5.87% and a positive return on equity of 17.61%. The company’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.66 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Wolfe Research raised shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research note on Tuesday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $10.59.

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.