Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (WBA) CEO, Executive Vice Chairman and 10% owner Stefano Pessina (Insider Trades) acquired 2 million shares in the company on Nov. 4. The price was $81.41 per share for a total transaction of $162,820,000.
Walgreens Boots Alliance is a global pharmacy-led health and well-being enterprise formed in December 2014. The company has a market cap of $88.32 billion.
Though there was not a linear trend in the number or volume of insider shares purchased from 2013 to 2015, the net volume of insider shares purchased decreased from 117,988 shares in 2013 to 31,500 shares in 2015. The opposite trend was shown for the number of insider purchases from 2013 to 2015; there were three and four insider purchases of Walgreens Boots Alliance in 2013 and 2015, respectively. Including the aforementioned transaction, Pessina conducted 2 transactions with the company since 2013. Pessina’s earlier transaction, a purchase of 34,439 shares at an average per share price of $45.77, which was conducted while Pessina held the title of Walgreens Boots Alliance director, increased by about 75% in price since then. Two days prior to Pessina’s most recent transaction to date, Director William Foote (Insider Trades) sold 2,067 shares for $81.30Â per share. For more information about insider transactions with Walgreens Boots Alliance, click here.
According to GuruFocus.com, Walgreens Boots Alliance has a business predictability rank of 3.5 out of 5 stars. For more information about business predictability rank, click here.
The company reported sales of $28.636 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016 ended on Aug. 31. Sales increased from the $28.522 billion reported by the company in the previous year’s fourth quarter. Net earnings also increased from $26 million, or 2 cents per share, to $1.030 billion, or 95 cents per share when comparing the same time periods. Pessina commented that the company has “continued to make good progress in putting in place the building blocks for the future growth of the business.”
Walgreens Boots Alliance also announced progress on the acquisition of Rite Aid Corp. on Oct. 27, 2015. The company, which reported that the acquisition is proceeding as planned, despite an increase in the number of stores divested, expects the acquisition to close in early 2017. Walgreens Boots Alliance reported that the divesting of 500 stores previously agreed upon, which has yet to be announced, was amended to a higher amount; however the company does not expect the total to exceed 1,000 stores.
During the second quarter of 2016, Jana Partners (Trades, Portfolio) sold 6 million shares at an average price per share of $80.69, reducing the stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance by 56.72%. In the two quarters prior to the transaction, Jana Partners reduced its stake by 10.55% and 13.99%. The total estimated gain of the holding since the third quarter of 2013 is 33%. For more information about guru trades with Walgreens Boots Alliance, click here.
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