Smith Moore & CO. Purchases 8,422 Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Smith Moore & CO. boosted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 29.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 37,151 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,422 shares during the period. Smith Moore & CO.’s holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance were worth $347,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 18.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 42,997,580 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $385,258,000 after purchasing an additional 6,569,223 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance during the 4th quarter worth about $58,241,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP acquired a new stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance in the 3rd quarter valued at about $24,226,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 86,335,084 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $805,506,000 after acquiring an additional 2,279,495 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 19.9% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,185,950 shares in the last quarter. 58.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Bank of America lifted 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. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target 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. Wolfe Research upgraded Walgreens Boots Alliance to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their target price for the company from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $10.59.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Performance

Shares of WBA stock opened at $10.68 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $9.23 billion, a PE ratio of -1.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.67. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $10.75 and a 200-day moving average of $9.98. 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 $19.48.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 10th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $39.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $37.40 billion. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a negative net margin of 5.87% and a positive return on equity of 17.61%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

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.