Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (WBA, Financial), the U.S. drug store company, will report its figures for the first quarter of fiscal 2018 on Monday.
Analysts expect Walgreens has closed the quarter with earnings per share of $1.26. This is a mean of 21 estimates of analysts who were surveyed. One year ago, the company reported a per-share earnings of $1.1.
These estimates fall in the $1.12 to $1.30 range for first-quarter 2018 earnings per share, as illustrated in the below chart.
Source: Yahoo Finance
Revenue is expected at $30.42 billion. This is also a mean of 18 estimates that range between a low of $29.3 billion and a high of $31.6 billion. At the end of the comparable quarter of fiscal 2017, Walgreens invoiced customers for $28.5 billion. This means that the forecast on the company’s revenue for the first quarter of 2018 represents a 6.70% increase.
The chart below illustrates the trend in the company’s sales over the last five quarters:
While the chart below gives a picture about Walgreens Boots Alliance’s sales over the last five fiscal years:
GuruFocus gives the company a Profitability & Growth rating of 7 out of 10.
Walgreens operates through three segments: Retail Pharmacy USA, Retail Pharmacy International and Pharmaceutical Wholesale.
The first segment sells prescription drugs and a variety of general merchandise through a network of about 8,175 retail stores which are operated under the Walgreens and Duane Reade brands in U.S. and approximately 400 convenient care clinics. The segment also operates seven specialty pharmacies.
The second segment sells prescription drugs and a variety of consumer products through a network of about 4,673 retail stores which are operated by the company under the Boots, Benavides and Ahumada. These stores are located in the U.K., Republic of Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Mexico, Chile and Thailand. Through this segment Walgreens also operates 636 optical practices.
In addition, through the Pharmaceutical Wholesale segment, the company is engaged in the wholesale and distribution of special and generic pharmaceutical products, of health and beauty products and of home health care supplies and equipment.
The Pharmaceutical Wholesale segment operates in several European countries including France, the United Kingdom, Germany and The Netherlands, as well as in Turkey and in Egypt.
Concerning its financial strength, GuruFocus ranks Walgreens Boots Alliance as 7 out of 10.
Walgreens Boots Alliance was trading at $72.62 on the Nasdaq stock exchange early Monday morning, with a market capitalization of $71.92 billion. The stock has a price-book (P/B) ratio of 2.71 versus an industry average of 1.85, a price-sales (P/S) ratio of 0.66 versus an industry median of 0.49 and a price-earnings (P/E) ratio of 19.21 versus an industry median of 19.33.
According to the Peter Lynch chart, the stock is trading below the earnings line without NRI:
For the 52 weeks through Dec. 29, Walgreens Boots Alliance has lost 4.91% and has underperformed the S&P 500 by 14.73%, as the benchmark has gained 9.82% over the same span:
Source: Yahoo Finance
The 52 Week Range is from $63.82 to $89.69.
The Forward Dividend & Yield is $1.60 per share and 2.20%.
The forward PE ratio is 13.05 versus an industry median of 18.08. When this ratio is multiplied by an EPS of $5.56 – as forecasted by analysts for full fiscal 2018 – yields a value of $72.56 per share.
The average target price is $85.67, and the recommendation rating is 2.2 out of 5. The recommendation rating ranges between 1.0 (Strong Buy) and 5.0 (Sell).
Walgreens Boots Alliance is currently reporting a volume of 990.36 million shares outstanding. The percentage of institutional ownership is 48.75% while insiders hold 0.84% of their own stock. The percentage of float is 85.19%.
Among the top institutional holders, the Vanguard Group Inc. stands out with 7.32% of shares oustanding. This holding was valued at $5,67 billion at Sept. 29.
Blackrock Inc., State Street Corporation and Wellington Management Company LLP follow with 5.70%, 3.87% and 3.83%.
Disclosure: No positions in Walgreens Boots Alliance.
