Meeder Advisory Services Inc. Acquires New Stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Meeder Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 13,552 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock, valued at approximately $164,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $144,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the 4th quarter valued at about $541,000. Quadrant Capital Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 33.8% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 7,494 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $196,000 after purchasing an additional 1,893 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 71.4% during the fourth quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 85,154 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $2,223,000 after buying an additional 35,469 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AMG National Trust Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance during the 4th quarter worth approximately $264,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $22.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $17.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $17.00 to $10.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $22.00 to $13.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $11.00 to $7.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Walgreens Boots Alliance presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $14.73.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Price Performance

WBA stock opened at $9.02 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $7.79 billion, a PE ratio of -1.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $10.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $15.02. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $8.46 and a 12-month high of $27.05.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.05). Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 12.63% and a negative net margin of 3.99%. The firm had revenue of $36.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $35.94 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.00 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 2.87 EPS for the current year.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.09%. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s payout ratio is -14.84%.

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.