Walgreens Boots Alliance Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:WBA)

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) saw some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors bought 91,477 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 31% compared to the typical volume of 69,572 call options.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Up 5.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ WBA opened at $10.84 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $9.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.06, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.65. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $10.55 and its 200 day moving average is $9.71. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a 52 week low of $8.08 and a 52 week high of $22.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.13. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a negative net margin of 5.87% and a positive return on equity of 17.61%. The business had revenue of $39.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $37.40 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.66 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Walgreens Boots Alliance will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Walgreens Boots Alliance

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WBA. State Street Corp grew its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 18.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 42,997,580 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $385,258,000 after purchasing an additional 6,569,223 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance during the 4th quarter valued at $58,241,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 186.3% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 7,740,100 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $72,215,000 after buying an additional 5,036,300 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 43.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,969,188 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $98,284,000 after purchasing an additional 3,329,857 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 32,572,567 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $303,902,000 after purchasing an additional 2,631,332 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on WBA. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective 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 cut their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.54.

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.