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

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Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $41.76, moving -0.07% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.59% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 0.28%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.02%.

Heading into today, shares of the largest U.S. drugstore chain had gained 17.65% over the past month, outpacing the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 1.82% and the S&P 500's gain of 6.89% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Walgreens Boots Alliance as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect Walgreens Boots Alliance to post earnings of $1.14 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 32.14%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $33.26 billion, down 1.88% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $4.50 per share and revenue of $133.07 billion, which would represent changes of -10.71% and +0.28%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Walgreens Boots Alliance. 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.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.4% lower. Walgreens Boots Alliance currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Looking at its valuation, Walgreens Boots Alliance is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 9.29. This valuation marks a no noticeable deviation compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 9.29.

Also, we should mention that WBA has a PEG ratio of 1.86. 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 was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.71 at yesterday's closing price.

The Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 211, which puts it in the bottom 17% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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