Manmohan Mahajan, CFO of
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), recently bought 6,000 shares. The buy increased his position by 4%, and came to a total cost of $116,280.
This is the third insider buy of the year, following a 10,000 share buy from the CEO and a 4,456 share buy from a company director in January. Otherwise, there has been one sale from a company director this year. That’s about in-line with last year’s insider activity.
Overall, Walgreens insiders own 17.4% of shares.
The pharmacy chain has seen shares get cut in half over the past year. Walgreens has struggled with profitability, even with revenues rising by 10%.
The low expectations for pharmacy stores has pushed Walgreens to a valuation of just 6 times forward earnings, and about 0.1 times its price to sales.
However, the company has a considerable amount of debt, which could weigh on the share price trending higher.
Action to take: Shares are still trending lower, and just hit a new 52-week low. Investors interested in shares may want to hold off until the downtrend ends and an uptrend starts.
For traders, playing to the current downtrend could prove profitable and help hedge your overall portfolio.
The July $17.50 calls, last trading for about $1.05, could see mid-double-digit returns in the coming months on a further decline.
Disclosure: The author of this article has no position in the company mentioned here, but may trade after the next 72 hours. The author receives no compensation from any company mentioned in this article.
