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Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA - Free Report) closed at $82.29 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.94% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.06%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.83%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.72%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the largest U.S. drugstore chain had gained 5.9% over the past month. This has outpaced the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 1.06% and the S&P 500's loss of 2.09% in that time.

WBA will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be January 3, 2019. On that day, WBA is projected to report earnings of $1.43 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 11.72%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $33.64 billion, up 9.44% from the year-ago period.

WBA's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $6.54 per share and revenue of $137.65 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +8.64% and +4.65%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for WBA. 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.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.24% higher. WBA is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that WBA has a Forward P/E ratio of 12.46 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 12.46, which means WBA is trading at a no noticeable deviation to the group.

Also, we should mention that WBA has a PEG ratio of 1.3. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. WBA's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.1 as of yesterday's close.

The Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 11, putting it in the top 4% 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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