Walgreens Boots Alliance Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:WBA)

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) saw some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors bought 168,529 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 172% compared to the typical volume of 61,987 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Walgreens Boots Alliance

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp grew its stake 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 worth $385,258,000 after purchasing an additional 6,569,223 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 43.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,969,188 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $98,284,000 after buying an additional 3,329,857 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake 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 during the period. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC raised its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 15.5% during the third quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 6,955,880 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $62,325,000 after acquiring an additional 934,754 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 2.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,258,919 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $29,200,000 after acquiring an additional 80,525 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on WBA shares. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Truist Financial lowered their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $13.00 to $10.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 7th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $19.00 to $9.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $10.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Walgreens Boots Alliance has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.58.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Up 27.5 %

WBA opened at $11.76 on Friday. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a 12 month low of $8.08 and a 12 month high of $24.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $9.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.85. The company has a market cap of $10.15 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.64.

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 14.23% and a negative net margin of 5.85%. 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 will post 1.53 EPS for the current year.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 18th. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -9.99%.

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.