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

Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) closed at $48.71 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.29% move from the prior day. This change outpaced the S&P 500’s 0.16% gain on the day.

Prior to today’s trading, shares of the largest U.S. drugstore chain had lost 5.24% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector’s loss of 1.73% and the S&P 500’s loss of 3.32% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from WBA as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be October 14, 2021. On that day, WBA is projected to report earnings of $1.01 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 0.98%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $33.28 billion, down 4.23% from the prior-year quarter.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for WBA. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company’s business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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 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 1.16% lower. WBA is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note WBA’s current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 9.45. This represents a no noticeable deviation compared to its industry’s average Forward P/E of 9.45.

It is also worth noting that WBA currently has a PEG ratio of 1.38. 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 1.55 at yesterday’s closing price.

The Retail – Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 205, putting it in the bottom 20% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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