Polianta Ltd Makes New Investment in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Polianta Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 109,200 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock, valued at approximately $1,219,000. Walgreens Boots Alliance makes up approximately 0.6% of Polianta Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest position.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WBA. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 16.5% during the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 26,084 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $243,000 after purchasing an additional 3,685 shares during the period. Ingalls & Snyder LLC raised its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 13.6% during the fourth quarter. Ingalls & Snyder LLC now owns 338,779 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $3,161,000 after purchasing an additional 40,570 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 131.2% during the fourth quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 321,880 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $3,003,000 after purchasing an additional 182,644 shares during the period. Finally, Secured Retirement Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance during the fourth quarter worth approximately $99,000. 58.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on WBA. Wolfe Research raised Walgreens Boots Alliance to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen assumed coverage on Walgreens Boots Alliance in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $10.59.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ WBA opened at $11.36 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.82 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.11, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.78. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $10.65. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 12 month low of $8.08 and a 12 month high of $16.25. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 8th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $38.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $37.90 billion. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 17.61% and a negative net margin of 5.87%. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s quarterly revenue was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.20 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Walgreens Boots Alliance

In other Walgreens Boots Alliance news, Chairman Stefano Pessina acquired 832,258 shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance stock in a transaction on Sunday, April 27th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $11.01 per share, for a total transaction of $9,163,160.58. Following the purchase, the chairman now directly owns 145,621,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,603,288,079.79. This trade represents a 0.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 17.50% of the company’s stock.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Company 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.