Miracle Mile Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 10,362 Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Miracle Mile Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 10,362 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock, valued at approximately $125,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 57.5% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 29,061,021 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $630,334,000 after buying an additional 10,612,373 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 10.4% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,519,845 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $170,233,000 after buying an additional 613,847 shares during the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 2,249,654 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $58,738,000 after buying an additional 27,634 shares during the last quarter. Ariel Investments LLC lifted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 25.3% in the first quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 1,839,987 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $39,909,000 after buying an additional 371,386 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 12.9% in the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 1,732,428 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $45,062,000 after buying an additional 197,370 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on WBA. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $22.00 to $13.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $20.00 to $13.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 28th. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $17.00 to $10.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 28th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $35.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 1st. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $11.00 to $7.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Walgreens Boots Alliance presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $16.86.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of WBA stock traded up $0.10 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $10.92. The company had a trading volume of 11,044,161 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,507,391. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 0.65. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a twelve month low of $10.19 and a twelve month high of $28.26. The company has a market capitalization of $9.43 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 0.72. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $12.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.97.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 27th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.05). Walgreens Boots Alliance had a negative net margin of 3.99% and a positive return on equity of 12.63%. The business had revenue of $36.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $35.94 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.00 EPS. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 2.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.16%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 21st. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -14.84%.

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.