Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) closed at $11.16 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.95% move from the prior day. The stock outperformed the S&P 500, which registered a daily gain of 0.58%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 0.62%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw an increase of 1.07%.

The the stock of largest U.S. drugstore chain has risen by 2.5% in the past month, lagging the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 10.56% and the S&P 500's gain of 11.33%.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Walgreens Boots Alliance in its upcoming release. In that report, analysts expect Walgreens Boots Alliance to post earnings of $0.34 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 46.03%. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $36.66 billion, reflecting a 0.85% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.

Looking at the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $1.66 per share and revenue of $151.49 billion. These totals would mark changes of -42.36% and +2.59%, respectively, from last year.

Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Walgreens Boots Alliance. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 3.25% rise in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Walgreens Boots Alliance is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

In terms of valuation, Walgreens Boots Alliance is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 6.65. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 5.11.

Investors should also note that WBA has a PEG ratio of 1.33 right now. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. The Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.77 as trading concluded yesterday.

Story Continues

The Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 4, finds itself in the top 2% echelons of all 250+ industries.

The strength of our individual industry groups is measured by the Zacks Industry Rank, which is calculated based on the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within these groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.

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Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA):Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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