What Happened?

Shares of pharmacy chain Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) jumped 19.9% in the afternoon session after The Wall Street Journal reported that the company (WBA) is in talks to sell itself to private equity firm Sycamore Partners. Most acquisitions close at a premium, raising the possibility that existing investors could exit their positions at a higher price if Walgreens strikes a deal with a buyer.

Is now the time to buy Walgreens? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.

What The Market Is Telling Us

Walgreens’s shares are quite volatile and have had 15 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Walgreens and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.

Walgreens is down 60.8% since the beginning of the year, and at $10.44 per share, it is trading 60.8% below its 52-week high of $26.65 from January 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Walgreens’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $178.74.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it should be obvious by now that generative AI is going to have a huge impact on how large corporations do business. While Nvidia and AMD are trading close to all-time highs, we prefer a lesser-known (but still profitable) semiconductor stock benefiting from the rise of AI. Click here to access our free report on our favorite semiconductor growth story.