Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: Here's Why
In the latest market close, Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) reached $20.80, with a -1.38% movement compared to the previous day. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a gain of 0.32% for the day. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 0.68%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw an increase of 0.2%.
The the stock of largest U.S. drugstore chain has fallen by 3.03% in the past month, lagging the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 5.25% and the S&P 500's gain of 5.11%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Walgreens Boots Alliance in its upcoming release. The company is slated to reveal its earnings on March 28, 2024. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $0.82, reflecting a 29.31% decrease from the same quarter last year. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $36.48 billion, up 4.65% from the year-ago period.
WBA's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $3.24 per share and revenue of $144.72 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -18.59% and +4.05%, respectively.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Walgreens Boots Alliance should also be noted by investors. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, running from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), holds an admirable track record of superior performance, independently audited, with #1 stocks contributing an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.1% lower. Walgreens Boots Alliance is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
In the context of valuation, Walgreens Boots Alliance is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 6.51. This signifies no noticeable deviation in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 6.51 for its industry.
One should further note that WBA currently holds a PEG ratio of 1.3. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.17 as trading concluded yesterday.
The Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 241, placing it within the bottom 5% of over 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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Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) : Free Stock Analysis Report
