The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Healthcare company by 19.11% to 72.59 million shares with purchase of 11.65 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 8.41% valued currently at $1.84 billion. In addition, SSgA Funds Management, Inc. raised its holdings by 46111.0 to 55.74 million shares. And BlackRock Fund Advisors has lifted its position by 6.67% or 2.87 million shares – to 45.92 million shares.
With over 21.72 million Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (WBA) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $22.42 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $486.87 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -32.89% and its price on 09/15/23 lost nearly -0.27%. Currently, there are 863.10M common shares owned by the public and among those 714.86M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 17 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for WBA have a consensus price objective of $31.15. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $41.00 and a low of $26.00. The average price target is 30.24% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 13.77% over that period. But an upside of 45.32% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $30.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 45 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 23 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 1,094,175 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 22 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 159,598 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and Invesco QQQ Trust. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 22.85 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $578.43 million. The company sold 1983.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 2.65% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 0.11 million shares to see its total holdings expand to 17.25 million shares valued at over $436.66 million and representing 2.00% of the shares outstanding. Invesco QQQ Trust bought 2674.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 14.53 million shares at a value of $367.85 million. Invesco QQQ Trust now owns shares totaling to 1.68% of the shares outstanding.
However, the script later moved the day high at 22.64, down -0.27%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 1.96% and -29.98% over the past three months. WBA shares are trading -39.99% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -35.52% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $21.39 and touched a high of $42.29 over the same period. WBA has an average intraday trading volume of 11.22 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -7.69%, -18.71%, and -32.20% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (NASDAQ: WBA) shares accounts for 59.80% of the company’s 863.10M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 34.26%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 35.32% and 24.82% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $19.41B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.70. The earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at -$3.84. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.81% over the week and 2.79% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (WBA) will achieve an EPS of $0.69 for the current quarter, $0.93 for the next quarter and $3.81 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.68 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.72. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.8 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 117.60%, and -4.67% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of -2.15% over the next five years, compared to 5.80% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 17 brokerage firm advisors rate Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (WBA) as a “Hold” at a consensus score of 3.00. Specifically, 1 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 13 of the 17 advise that investors “hold,” and 1 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the WBA, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Morgan Stanley stated their Underweight rating for the stock in a research note on July 03, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $37-$27.
