Valerie Jarrett, a director at
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), recently bought 4,456 shares. The buy is a new stake for the director, and came to a total cost of $99,993.
This is the second buy of the year, following a 10,000 share pickup from the company CEO, costing just over $242,000. One director sold their entire stake so far this year, otherwise the last executive sale occurred back in November.
Overall, Walgreens insiders own 17.4 percent of shares.
The pharmacy chain has seen shares drop by one-third over the past year, as profitability has been elusive. Plus, investors didn’t like it when the company reduced its dividends after years of increasing payouts.
However, revenues are up 10 percent, and shares now trade at less than 8 times forward earnings. With market expectations low, Walgreens could be a surprising winner in the months ahead.
Action to take: Speculative investors may like shares around current prices in the low $20 range. Even with the reduced dividend payment, the drop in price still gives shares a 4.3 percent yield at current prices.
For traders, shares have been trending higher since late last year. If that trend continues, the April $25 calls could provide great returns.
The options last traded for about $0.90, and could see mid-double-digit returns on a continued rally higher.
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.