Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) Shares Up 3.2% Following Dividend Announcement

Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) shot up 3.2% during mid-day trading on Wednesday following a dividend announcement from the company. The stock traded as high as $11.20 and last traded at $11.13. 4,884,463 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 67% from the average session volume of 14,919,822 shares. The stock had previously closed at $10.79.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st will be given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 21st. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -14.84%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on WBA. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $35.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $30.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 1st. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 24th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $20.00 to $13.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance from $22.00 to $13.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.71.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Trading Up 0.7 %

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $15.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $19.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market cap of $9.94 billion, a PE ratio of -1.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.72.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 14.5% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 86,675,198 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $1,927,656,000 after buying an additional 10,962,030 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 57.5% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 29,061,021 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $630,334,000 after buying an additional 10,612,373 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,519,845 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $170,233,000 after acquiring an additional 613,847 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 12.4% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 3,077,336 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $80,349,000 after acquiring an additional 339,143 shares during the period. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group increased its holdings in shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 2,249,654 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $58,738,000 after acquiring an additional 27,634 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.59% of the company’s stock.

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.