Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) Stock Position Raised by Korea Investment CORP

Korea Investment CORP lifted its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 20.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 292,227 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 49,300 shares during the quarter. Korea Investment CORP’s holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance were worth $2,726,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 86,335,084 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $805,506,000 after purchasing an additional 2,279,495 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 18.0% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted 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 during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,432,383 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $50,684,000 after acquiring an additional 478,061 shares in the last quarter. 58.59% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on WBA. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Friday, February 28th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Truist Financial dropped their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on 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. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Walgreens Boots Alliance has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $10.59.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Performance

WBA opened at $11.16 on Wednesday. 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 company has a market cap of $9.64 billion, a PE ratio of -1.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.62. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $10.80 and a 200-day moving average of $9.95. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 52-week low of $8.08 and a 52-week high of $19.62.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $37.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.66 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast 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.