What to Expect From Walgreens Earnings

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (NASDAQ: WBA) is scheduled to report its fiscal third-quarter financial results before the markets open on Wednesday. The Thomson Reuters consensus estimates are $1.14 in earnings per share (EPS) on $29.71 billion in revenue. In the same period of last year, the retailer posted EPS of $1.02 and $28.80 billion in revenue.

Earlier in June, Walgreens cut off its relationship with the blood testing firm Theranos, after the firm and owner Elizabeth Holmes came under fire from the Wall Street Journal for alleged fraud and failed accuracy requirements.

At that time, Walgreens informed Theranos that it will be terminating its relationship and closing operations at all 40 Theranos Wellness Centers at its stores in Arizona, effective immediately. This follows the company’s decision in January to halt Theranos laboratory testing services at its Palo Alto location, and it means Walgreens will no longer offer Theranos services at any of its stores.

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Brad Fluegel, Walgreens Senior Vice President and Chief Health Care Commercial Market Development Officer, commented on the breakup:

In light of the voiding of a number of test results, and as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has rejected Theranos’ plan of correction and considers sanctions, we have carefully considered our relationship with Theranos and believe it is in our customers’ best interests to terminate our partnership.

A few analysts weighed in on Walgreens ahead of the earnings report:

• Robert Baird reiterated an Outperform rating with a $98 price target.
• Merrill Lynch reiterated a Buy rating.
• Deutsche Bank reiterated a Buy rating.
• Jefferies reiterated a Hold rating.
• Leerink Swann reiterated a Buy rating.
• Credit Suisse reiterated a Buy rating with a $95 price target.

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So far in 2016, Walgreens has performed more or less in line with the broad markets, with the stock relatively flat in this time. Over the past 52 weeks, the performance has been relatively similar.

Shares of Walgreens were trading at $83.83 on Tuesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $94.27 and a 52-week trading range of $71.50 to $97.30.