Walgreens Boots Alliance Sees First Insider Stock Purchase Since 2019

If a CEO is buying company stock, investors should take note. CEOs tend to be way ahead of analysts and portfolio managers when it comes to the performance of their companies and their stock purchases can provide valuable trading signals.

In this report, we are going to highlight a CEO stock purchase at Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA:US). Walgreens Boots Alliance is a British-American-Swiss holding company that owns the retail pharmacy chains Walgreens in the US and Boots in the UK, as well as several pharmaceutical manufacturing and distribution companies. It is listed on the Nasdaq and currently has a market cap of approximately $30.87 billion.

Insider Buying at Walgreens Boots Alliance

Our data shows that on March 29, CEO Rosalind Brewer purchased 10,000 WBA shares at a price of $33.95 per share. This trade cost the insider approximately $339,510 and increased her holding to 369,945 shares.

Industry Experience

Ms. Brewer has considerable experience in the retail and consumer health industries.

Previously, she served as President and CEO of Sam’s Club, a membership-only retail warehouse club and division of Walmart, Inc., from February 2012 to February 2017. She also held several executive leadership positions with Walmart beginning in 2006.

Prior to joining Walmart, she held various management positions at Kimberly-Clark beginning in 1984.

Given her experience, she is likely to have a good understanding of her company's prospects.

What’s interesting here is that insider purchases at Walgreens Boots Alliance are not very common. Our data shows that this is the first buy from an insider at the company since April 2019. This suggests that the insider sees an investment opportunity at present.

Better-than-expected Q2

Walgreens Boots Alliance’s recent Q2 results were ahead of analysts’ estimates.

For the quarter, revenue rose 3.3% to $34.86 billion from a year ago. Analysts had been expecting $33.53 billion. Meanwhile, adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.16​​ versus the consensus estimate of $1.10.

Performance was helped by higher prescription drug prices, which helped offset the blow from declining Covid-19 vaccinations.

Looking ahead, the company maintained its full-year adjusted EPS guidance of $4.45 to $4.65. It added that it is confident of generating strong growth in the second half of the fiscal year.

In light of these results, and the fact that the stock is trading at a major discount to the market right now, we see the insider buying here as a bullish signal.