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

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Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $26.54, moving +0.38% from the previous trading session. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.28%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.51%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.06%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the largest U.S. drugstore chain had lost 13.71% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 0.75% and the S&P 500's loss of 2.85% in that time.

Walgreens Boots Alliance will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, Walgreens Boots Alliance is projected to report earnings of $0.69 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 13.75%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $34.57 billion, up 6.54% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $4 per share and revenue of $138.16 billion. These totals would mark changes of -20.63% and +4.12%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Walgreens Boots Alliance. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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 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% lower. Walgreens Boots Alliance is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

Digging into valuation, Walgreens Boots Alliance currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 6.61. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 6.89, which means Walgreens Boots Alliance is trading at a discount to the group.

Meanwhile, WBA's PEG ratio is currently 1.32. 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 currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.58 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 201, which puts it in the bottom 21% 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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