Earnings Preview: Walgreens Boots Alliance

General Electric’s (GE) replacement on the Dow index, drug retail chain Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), is said to have a greater dominance in US metropolitan areas. The wholesale pharmaceutical distributor is slated to announce its third-quarter financial results on June 28.

Wall Street analysts forecast the drugstore to report earnings of $1.48 a share. Revenues are estimated to be approx. $34.2 billion. Considering the company has consistently topped earning estimation, we can expect this growth momentum to continue even in Q3.  The company, that is also a high-quality dividend growth stock, increased its adjusted earnings estimate for the full year to about $5.85-$6.05 per share.

Related: With Rite Aid stores under its wings, Walgreens prepares to take down rivals

Walgreens, which recently completed the purchase of nearly half of rival Rite Aid’s (RAD) stores, has been under intense pressure to secure its position in the healthcare space – considering another rival CVS Health (CVS) is close to acquiring Aetna (AET) later this year.  Investors too are eagerly waiting for the company to roll out a new strategy and format for its stores amid the threat that Amazon would enter the pharmacy space.

Though not a big deal like CVS, Walgreens has entered into several partnerships over the period of time. The latest partnership is Humana (HUM). Both the companies together plan on operating primary care centers for senior citizens. According to MarketRealistic, none of the analysts have a SELL recommendation for the stock. 52% of the analysts rate the stock a BUY and remaining 48% recommend a HOLD rating.

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