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

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) shares gapped up prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $11.04, but opened at $11.70. Walgreens Boots Alliance shares last traded at $11.43, with a volume of 4,180,300 shares.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on 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. Wolfe Research raised shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price 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. Truist Financial lowered their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.63.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Performance

The firm’s 50 day moving average is $10.44 and its 200-day moving average is $9.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.12, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.64.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $39.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $37.40 billion. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 17.61% and a negative net margin of 5.87%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.66 EPS. Analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Walgreens Boots Alliance

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WBA. Yoffe Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $102,000. LifeWealth Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the 4th quarter valued at about $97,000. Integrated Advisors Network LLC boosted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 236.8% in the fourth quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC now owns 61,919 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $578,000 after acquiring an additional 43,532 shares in the last quarter. WNY Asset Management LLC raised its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. WNY Asset Management LLC now owns 161,227 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $1,504,000 after buying an additional 1,451 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PVG Asset Management Corp purchased a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the 4th quarter valued at about $228,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

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.