Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. Takes $343,000 Position in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. purchased a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 36,780 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock, valued at approximately $343,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 18.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 42,997,580 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $385,258,000 after purchasing an additional 6,569,223 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 43.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,969,188 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $98,284,000 after acquiring an additional 3,329,857 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP bought a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance in the third quarter worth approximately $24,226,000. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC raised its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 15.5% in the third quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 6,955,880 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $62,325,000 after acquiring an additional 934,754 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 12.1% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 7,594,475 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $68,046,000 after acquiring an additional 817,762 shares during the period. 58.59% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WBA has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI raised 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. Wolfe Research raised shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Walgreens Boots Alliance presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.54.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Trading Down 4.9 %

NASDAQ WBA opened at $10.69 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $9.23 billion, a PE ratio of -1.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $10.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.72. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $8.08 and a 52 week high of $22.05.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last released its earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $39.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.66 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.