Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (WBA)

[Prudent Capitalist]

The company stagnated under the leadership of Stephano Pessina following the WAG-Alliance Boots merger. He owned so much stock I am not sure he had much incentive to move everything forward. And, Europe, and in particular the UK with Brexit, were a drag. Roz Brewer is doing a great job IMO, and the future is very bright for WBA under this new leadership. I do not know that we will return to the previous $80 - $90 trading range any time soon, but I have continued to reinvest all dividends in new shares down at the recent undervalued levels and am not selling any of my WBA position.

P.S. I was in Italy (several regions) for a good part of September and was surprised at no branding of Boots or WBA on any of the Farmacia's. I had assumed with Pessina being the primary owner of the merger partner and all that there would be a recognizable presence in Italy, but maybe there is ownership but no branding. Given the testing requirements (we had to test negative to return to the US) the testing business is booming for the outlets over there.