Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ: WBA) ended roughly 5.0% down even though it reported better-than-expected results for its first financial quarter.
Is Walgreens stock a ‘buy’?
Shareholders were put off by $5.2 billion of charge related to an opioid settlement that pushed it into a net loss this quarter.
But that doesn’t matter much to G Squared Private Wealth’s Victoria Greene. Recommending buying Walgreens stock on CNBC’s “Power Lunch”, she said:
They’re pivoting from a pharmacy to total health. This company is evolving. Their earnings weren’t bad minus the one-off items. For me, it’s a buy as I see potential in the stock and I see revenue streams continuing to grow.
At close to 8 times forward, Greene added, shares of the Deerfield-headquartered firm are reasonably priced as well.
Walgreens Q1 financial highlights
- Lost $3.70 billion that translates to $4.31 a share
- That compared to $3.6 billion profit a year ago
- On an adjusted basis, earned $1.16 per share
- Sales also slid from $33.9 billion to $33.4 billion
- Consensus was $1.14 of EPS on $32.9 billion sales
Other notable figures and future guidance
Other notable figures in the earnings press release include a 3.0% hit to the U.S. Retail Pharmacy sales. U.S. Healthcare unit brought in $989 million in total this quarter.
For the full financial year, Walgreens Boots Alliance continues to expect up to $137.5 billion in sales on $4.45 a share to $4.65 a share of earnings.
Versus its high in late November, Walgreens stock is down roughly 16% at writing.
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