Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) closed the most recent trading day at $50.04, moving +1.46% from the previous trading session. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.1%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 1.05%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.32%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the largest U.S. drugstore chain had lost 9.93% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 5.1% and the S&P 500's loss of 5.05% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from WBA as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, WBA is projected to report earnings of $1.42 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 4.05%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $33.88 billion, up 1.3% from the year-ago period.

WBA's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $5.99 per share and revenue of $136.94 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -0.5% and +4.11%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for WBA should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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 ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.05% higher. WBA currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note WBA's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 8.24. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 8.72.

Meanwhile, WBA's PEG ratio is currently 1.23. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.23 as of yesterday's close.

The Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 236, which puts it in the bottom 8% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks 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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