Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) Stock Position Lifted by Janney Montgomery Scott LLC

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 17.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 175,236 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 25,582 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance were worth $1,635,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Brooklyn Investment Group raised its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 21.1% during the fourth quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 4,757 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 830 shares during the period. First Financial Corp IN lifted its position 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 worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 885 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 4.4% during the third quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 25,215 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $226,000 after purchasing an additional 1,063 shares during the period. Lincluden Management Ltd. grew its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 0.4% during the third quarter. Lincluden Management Ltd. now owns 264,644 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $2,371,000 after purchasing an additional 1,074 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWA Asset Management Group LLC increased its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 12,893 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $120,000 after buying an additional 1,084 shares during the period. 58.59% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on WBA. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Bank of America boosted their target price 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. Morgan Stanley dropped 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. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on 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, UBS Group increased their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.19.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Down 5.1 %

WBA opened at $9.76 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.43 billion, a P/E ratio of -0.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.64. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a one year low of $8.08 and a one year high of $23.76. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $10.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $9.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.30.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $39.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.66 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 earnings per share 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.