Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Purchases 21,533 Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 2.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,040,785 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after buying an additional 21,533 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD’s holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance were worth $9,712,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WBA. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $58,241,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 32,572,567 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $303,902,000 after purchasing an additional 2,631,332 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 86,335,084 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $805,506,000 after buying an additional 2,279,495 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 19.9% during 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 buying an additional 2,185,950 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi raised its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 70.3% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 4,455,720 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $41,082,000 after buying an additional 1,839,045 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of WBA stock opened at $10.98 on Friday. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a twelve month low of $8.08 and a twelve month high of $18.83. The stock has a market cap of $9.49 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.67. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $10.97 and a 200 day moving average of $10.26. The company has a current ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 8th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.10. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a negative net margin of 5.87% and a positive return on equity of 17.61%. The firm had revenue of $38.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $37.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WBA has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America boosted their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. 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 report on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a report on Sunday, April 27th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Truist Financial reduced their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $10.59.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Walgreens Boots Alliance news, Chairman Stefano Pessina acquired 832,258 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, April 27th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $11.01 per share, for a total transaction of $9,163,160.58. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 145,621,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,603,288,079.79. This represents a 0.57 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 17.50% of the company’s stock.

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.