Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) Increases Yet Falls Behind Market: What Investors Need to Know
In the latest trading session, Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) closed at $21.24, marking a +0.38% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.52%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 0.12%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq increased by 0.9%.
Shares of the largest U.S. drugstore chain have depreciated by 6.25% over the course of the past month, underperforming the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 0.38% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.85%.
Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Walgreens Boots Alliance in its upcoming release. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $0.84, signifying a 27.59% drop compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $36.48 billion, up 4.65% from the prior-year quarter.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $3.25 per share and a revenue of $144.72 billion, demonstrating changes of -18.34% and +4.05%, respectively, from the preceding year.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Walgreens Boots Alliance should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, spanning from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), boasts an impressive track record of outperformance, audited externally, with #1 ranked stocks yielding an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.01% lower. Walgreens Boots Alliance presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, Walgreens Boots Alliance is presently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 6.52. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 6.52, which means Walgreens Boots Alliance is trading at no noticeable deviation to the group.
It's also important to note that WBA currently trades at a PEG ratio of 1.3. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.2 as trading concluded yesterday.
The Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 232, which puts it in the bottom 8% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) : Free Stock Analysis Report
