Colonial Trust Co SC Increases Position in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Colonial Trust Co SC increased its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 79.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,928 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,297 shares during the period. Colonial Trust Co SC’s holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance were worth $27,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Financial Corp IN increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 885 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Riverview Trust Co raised its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 123.8% during the 4th quarter. Riverview Trust Co now owns 2,874 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 1,590 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Independence Bank of Kentucky purchased a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America lifted their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Wolfe Research raised Walgreens Boots Alliance to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Royal Bank of Canada upped 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, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Walgreens Boots Alliance currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $10.59.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Up 0.7 %

WBA stock opened at $11.24 on Friday. 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 company’s 50 day simple moving average is $11.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $10.29. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 12 month low of $8.08 and a 12 month high of $18.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.72 billion, a PE ratio of -1.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.77.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 8th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.10. 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 $38.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $37.90 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s quarterly revenue was up 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Walgreens Boots Alliance news, Chairman Stefano Pessina purchased 832,258 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Sunday, April 27th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $11.01 per share, for a total transaction of $9,163,160.58. Following the acquisition, the chairman now owns 145,621,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,603,288,079.79. The trade was a 0.57 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 17.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.