A quick look at the chart and you'll wish you bought the stock two weeks ago when the price was closer to $81 rather than the current price of nearly $86. But look at the estimates below and it's obvious that there's still more to be gained over the next year. That's not necessarily true for many of the other great dividend stocks. Below you'll find the fundamentals and links to the shares technical charts.
(Summary) (Company) (Chart)
20 February 2017 Price $85.86 1yr Target $94.52 Analysts 20 Dividend $1.50 Payout Ratio 39.68% 1yr Cap Gain 10.08% Yield 1.74% 1yr Tot Return 11.82% P/E 22.70 PEG 1.80 Beta 1.25 | EPS (ttm) $3.78 EPS next yr $5.52 Forward P/E 15.55 EPS next 5yr 12.60% 1yr Price Support $69.55 Market Cap $92.45 Bil Revenues $116.82 Bil Earnings $4.12 Bil Profit Margin 3.52% Quick Ratio 0.90 Current Ratio 1.50 Debt/Equity 0.64 | 1yr RevGR 13.44% 3yr RevGR 17.37% 5yr RevGR 10.20% 1yr EarnGR -4.50% 3yr EarnGR 12.54% 5yr EarnGR 5.37% 1yr DivGR 6.04% 3yr DivGR --- 5yr DivGR --- ROA 5.90% ROE 13.80% |
While WBA has a short dividend history, Walgreens had a long history of increasing its dividend over at least the last 25 years as it's on the list of Dividend Aristocrats. That recognition alone makes it a preferred choice for Dividend Growth Investors. For me it's a matter of finding dividend growth stocks that are currently priced relatively low enough that the total estimated annual return makes sense. That's not an easy thing to do in a market that's moved up so much recently.
I intend to add shares of WBA to my portfolio over the next few weeks as long as the stock stays at or below its current price. A price any higher and this transaction becomes harder to do. Any move lower makes any transaction a lot more desirable. In addition, this stock has a beta of 1.25 which may allow the stock to pullback just enough to make this transaction desirable and a lot more profitable.
As a Dividend Aristocrat, buying and holding shares of this company, along with dividend reinvestment, could easily make this company a significant core holding in my portfolio.