Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)’s stock price gapped down prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $12.52, but opened at $11.72. Walgreens Boots Alliance shares last traded at $11.10, with a volume of 9,135,996 shares trading hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on WBA shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on 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. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $7.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Barclays lifted their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Four research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $13.27.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock has a market cap of $9.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $9.84.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. The firm 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%. The company’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.66 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.59 EPS for the current year.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 18th. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -9.77%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in WBA. Amalgamated Bank boosted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 13.2% during the 2nd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 217,597 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $2,632,000 after purchasing an additional 25,439 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 19.5% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 52,400 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $633,000 after buying an additional 8,538 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance in the 2nd quarter valued at $837,000. Summit Trail Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 60.7% during the 2nd quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 24,220 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $293,000 after acquiring an additional 9,144 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ensign Peak Advisors Inc grew its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 8.4% in the 2nd quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 308,736 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $3,734,000 after acquiring an additional 24,041 shares in the last quarter. 58.59% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.