Slagle Financial LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Slagle Financial LLC raised its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 4.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 201,893 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,982 shares during the quarter. Slagle Financial LLC’s holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance were worth $1,884,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 86,335,084 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $805,506,000 after buying an additional 2,279,495 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 18.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 42,997,580 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $385,258,000 after acquiring an additional 6,569,223 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 19.9% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 12.1% in the third 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 worth $68,046,000 after acquiring an additional 817,762 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance during the fourth quarter worth approximately $58,241,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on WBA. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Wolfe Research upgraded Walgreens Boots Alliance to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a report on Wednesday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. 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 research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $10.59.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of WBA opened at $11.16 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $10.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $9.88. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a twelve month low of $8.08 and a twelve month high of $22.05. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $9.64 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.09, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.62.

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

Walgreens Boots Alliance Company 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.