Stevens Capital Management LP Increases Holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Stevens Capital Management LP boosted its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 35.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 35,085 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after buying an additional 9,277 shares during the quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP’s holdings in Walgreens Boots Alliance were worth $327,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quest Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 379.4% in the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 10,499 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $94,000 after purchasing an additional 8,309 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new position in Walgreens Boots Alliance in the 3rd quarter valued at about $149,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 23.4% during the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 340,431 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $3,050,000 after acquiring an additional 64,586 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance during the third quarter worth about $3,448,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in the third quarter worth about $109,000. 58.59% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on WBA. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Wolfe Research raised Walgreens Boots Alliance to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Walgreens Boots Alliance from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Walgreens Boots Alliance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $10.59.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WBA opened at $11.15 on Tuesday. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $8.08 and a 12-month high of $22.05. The company has a current ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The company has a market cap of $9.64 billion, a PE ratio of -1.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.62. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $10.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.85.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The pharmacy operator reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $39.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $37.40 billion. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a positive return on equity of 17.61% and a negative net margin of 5.87%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.66 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

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.