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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 the most recent trading day at $53.96, moving +0.32% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.96% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 0.75%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.58%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the largest U.S. drugstore chain had lost 0.66% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 3.11% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.85% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from WBA as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, WBA is projected to report earnings of $1.43 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 6.54%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $34.54 billion, up 0.61% from the prior-year quarter.

WBA's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $5.99 per share and revenue of $136.77 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -0.5% and +3.98%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for WBA should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-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 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, 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.19% higher. WBA is holding a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell) right now.

Looking at its valuation, WBA is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 8.98. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 12.53.

Investors should also note that WBA has a PEG ratio of 1.1 right now. 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. The Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry currently 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 246, putting it in the bottom 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.

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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