Walgreens ‘ management just flashed a warning sign for the year ahead, and Deutsche Bank thinks investors need to stay on the sidelines on the stock. The bank downgraded the pharmacy stock to hold from buy on Wednesday and lowered its price target to $34 per share price from $46. Deutsche’s new forecast implies roughly 19% upside from Tuesday’s close. Analyst George Hill said a Tuesday call from company management that lowered both fiscal fourth quarter and preliminary 2024 guidance underpinned the downgrade. WBA YTD mountain Walgreens stock is down more than 23% so far this year. “There were so many issues on the WBA call that it is difficult to point to one issue as the source of concern,” Hill said. “Perhaps the most striking concern was the reduced guidance for the company’s burgeoning Health segment which was expected to flip to profitability in F3Q.” Hill noted that Walgreens now expects fiscal 2023 adjusted EBITDA between losses of $380 million and $340 million. The company’s previous guidance called for a profit at the top end of the range. “In the retail pharmacy segment, while core earnings performance improved, old shoals including reimbursement pressure and operational challenges that we had thought were behind us weigh again on the F2024 outlook,” he said. Walgreens also cut its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings guidance and reported a weaker-than-expected fiscal third-quarter profit . The stock dropped more than 9% on Tuesday for its biggest one-day loss since November 2020. “We now see risk to the F2024 outlook at the company has embedded 10mm Covid vaccines in its guidance as well as a sharp increase in Healthcare segment profitability where we now have less confidence, and see other sources of potential earnings short falls,” he said. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
Deutsche Bank downgrades Walgreens on worrying outlook for pharmacy stock
