In the latest market close, Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) reached $11.20, with a -0.44% movement compared to the previous day. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a gain of 0.41% for the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.08%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.67%.
Shares of the largest U.S. drugstore chain have appreciated by 2.46% over the course of the past month, underperforming the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 5.64% and the S&P 500's gain of 6.13%.
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The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Walgreens Boots Alliance in its forthcoming earnings report. On that day, Walgreens Boots Alliance is projected to report earnings of $0.34 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 46.03%. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $36.66 billion, indicating a 0.85% upward movement from the same quarter last year.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $1.66 per share and a revenue of $151.49 billion, demonstrating changes of -42.36% and +2.59%, respectively, from the preceding year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Walgreens Boots Alliance. 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.
Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. 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, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. Walgreens Boots Alliance presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Walgreens Boots Alliance has a Forward P/E ratio of 6.77 right now. This indicates a premium in contrast to its industry's Forward P/E of 5.43.
Investors should also note that WBA has a PEG ratio of 1.35 right now. 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. Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 0.79 based on yesterday's closing prices.
The Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 3, putting it in the top 2% of all 250+ industries.
The strength of our individual industry groups is measured by the Zacks Industry Rank, which is calculated based on the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within these groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
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Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) : Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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