Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) Shares Sold by Choate Investment Advisors

Choate Investment Advisors lowered its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 13.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 10,038 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after selling 1,564 shares during the quarter. Choate Investment Advisors’ holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance were worth $94,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Brooklyn Investment Group lifted its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 21.1% in the fourth quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 4,757 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 830 shares during the period. First Financial Corp IN lifted its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 49.2% in the fourth quarter. First Financial Corp IN now owns 2,685 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 885 shares during the period. CWA Asset Management Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 12,893 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $120,000 after buying an additional 1,084 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 23,815 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $222,000 after buying an additional 1,118 shares during the period. Finally, Avantax Advisory Services Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 49,896 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $466,000 after buying an additional 1,186 shares during the period. 58.59% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Performance

Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance stock opened at $11.26 on Tuesday. 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 has a market cap of $9.73 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.62. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $10.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $9.77. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $8.08 and a fifty-two week high of $22.05.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $39.50 billion during 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%. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.66 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on WBA shares. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research note on Tuesday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Royal Bank of Canada raised 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. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Four 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.54.

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.