Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Sells 199,943 Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 46.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 231,954 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after selling 199,943 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance were worth $2,164,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 18.0% in 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 period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 19.9% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,155,138 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $122,737,000 after buying an additional 2,185,950 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 12.1% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 7,594,475 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $68,046,000 after buying an additional 817,762 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,432,383 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $50,684,000 after buying an additional 478,061 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 70.3% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 4,455,720 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $41,082,000 after acquiring an additional 1,839,045 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research raised Walgreens Boots Alliance to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Bank of America boosted their price target 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. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research report on Wednesday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Walgreens Boots Alliance currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $10.59.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Up 0.5 %

WBA opened at $11.16 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $9.64 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.62. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 12 month low of $8.08 and a 12 month high of $22.05. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $10.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 positive return on equity of 17.61% and a negative net margin of 5.87%. The firm had revenue of $39.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $37.40 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.66 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 EPS 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.