Raymond James Financial Inc. Purchases Shares of 1,038,053 Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,038,053 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock, valued at approximately $9,685,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned about 0.12% of Walgreens Boots Alliance at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WBA. First Financial Corp IN lifted its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 49.2% during the 4th quarter. First Financial Corp IN now owns 2,685 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 885 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Riverview Trust Co lifted its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 123.8% during the 4th quarter. Riverview Trust Co now owns 2,874 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 1,590 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, TD Private Client Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 8,670.3% during the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 3,245 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 3,208 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on WBA. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. 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, February 28th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted 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 research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research note on Tuesday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Walgreens Boots Alliance currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $10.59.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ:WBA opened at $11.10 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $10.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.82. 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, Inc. has a one year low of $8.08 and a one year high of $22.05. The company has a market cap of $9.59 billion, a PE ratio of -1.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.62.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $37.40 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.66 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current 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.