Allianz Asset Management GmbH Purchases 61,317 Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,347,677 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after buying an additional 61,317 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH owned approximately 0.50% of Walgreens Boots Alliance worth $40,564,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of 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 worth $98,284,000 after buying an additional 3,329,857 shares during the last quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc grew its position in 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 worth $3,947,000 after acquiring an additional 190,996 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 45.3% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 595,828 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $5,559,000 after acquiring an additional 185,762 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 23.4% during the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 340,431 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $3,050,000 after acquiring an additional 64,586 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sasco Capital Inc. CT raised its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 13.6% during the third quarter. Sasco Capital Inc. CT now owns 1,041,440 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $9,331,000 after purchasing an additional 124,950 shares during the period. 58.59% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Truist Financial dropped their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of 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. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Walgreens Boots Alliance has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $12.63.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Price Performance

Walgreens Boots Alliance stock opened at $10.16 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $8.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.65. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $10.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $9.70. 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.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $39.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.66 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

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.