Description

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. operates as a pharmacy-led health and wellbeing company. It operates through three segments: Retail Pharmacy USA, Retail Pharmacy International, and Pharmaceutical Wholesale. The Retail Pharmacy USA segment sells prescription drugs and an assortment of retail products, including health, wellness, beauty, personal care, consumable, and general merchandise products through its retail drugstores and convenient care clinics. It also provides specialty pharmacy services and mail services; and manages in-store clinics. As of August 31, 2019, this segment operated 9,277 retail stores under the Walgreens and Duane Reade brands in the United States; and 6 specialty pharmacies. The Retail Pharmacy International segment sells prescription drugs; and health and wellness, beauty, personal care, and other consumer products through its pharmacy-led health and beauty stores and optical practices, as well as through boots.com and an integrated mobile application. This segment operated 4,605 retail stores under the Boots, Benavides, and Ahumada in the United Kingdom, Thailand, Norway, the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Mexico, and Chile; and 606 optical practices, including 165 on a franchise basis. The Pharmaceutical Wholesale segment engages in the wholesale and distribution of specialty and generic pharmaceuticals, health and beauty products, and home healthcare supplies and equipment, as well as provides related services to pharmacies and other healthcare providers. This segment operates in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Turkey, Spain, the Netherlands, Egypt, Norway, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Lithuania. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has a strategic partnership with Microsoft and Adobe to launch second phase of digital transformation at the intersection of health and technology. The company was founded in 1901 and is based in Deerfield, Illinois.

Statistics (YTD)

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TotalReturn:

'The total return on a portfolio of investments takes into account not only the capital appreciation on the portfolio, but also the income received on the portfolio. The income typically consists of interest, dividends, and securities lending fees. This contrasts with the price return, which takes into account only the capital gain on an investment.'

Using this definition on our asset we see for example:
  • Compared with the benchmark SPY (75.3%) in the period of the last 5 years, the total return of -60.6% of Walgreens is lower, thus worse.
  • Compared with SPY (66.5%) in the period of the last 3 years, the total return, or performance of -60.9% is lower, thus worse.

CAGR:

'Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is a business and investing specific term for the geometric progression ratio that provides a constant rate of return over the time period. CAGR is not an accounting term, but it is often used to describe some element of the business, for example revenue, units delivered, registered users, etc. CAGR dampens the effect of volatility of periodic returns that can render arithmetic means irrelevant. It is particularly useful to compare growth rates from various data sets of common domain such as revenue growth of companies in the same industry.'

Which means for our asset as example:
  • The annual performance (CAGR) over 5 years of Walgreens is -17%, which is lower, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (11.9%) in the same period.
  • During the last 3 years, the annual performance (CAGR) is -27%, which is smaller, thus worse than the value of 18.6% from the benchmark.

Volatility:

'Volatility is a statistical measure of the dispersion of returns for a given security or market index. Volatility can either be measured by using the standard deviation or variance between returns from that same security or market index. Commonly, the higher the volatility, the riskier the security. In the securities markets, volatility is often associated with big swings in either direction. For example, when the stock market rises and falls more than one percent over a sustained period of time, it is called a 'volatile' market.'

Which means for our asset as example:
  • The 30 days standard deviation over 5 years of Walgreens is 39.7%, which is larger, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (17%) in the same period.
  • Compared with SPY (15.1%) in the period of the last 3 years, the historical 30 days volatility of 44.7% is greater, thus worse.

DownVol:

'Risk measures typically quantify the downside risk, whereas the standard deviation (an example of a deviation risk measure) measures both the upside and downside risk. Specifically, downside risk in our definition is the semi-deviation, that is the standard deviation of all negative returns.'

Applying this definition to our asset in some examples:
  • The downside volatility over 5 years of Walgreens is 27.1%, which is larger, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (11.8%) in the same period.
  • Looking at downside volatility in of 30.3% in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively higher, thus worse in comparison to SPY (10.1%).

Sharpe:

'The Sharpe ratio (also known as the Sharpe index, the Sharpe measure, and the reward-to-variability ratio) is a way to examine the performance of an investment by adjusting for its risk. The ratio measures the excess return (or risk premium) per unit of deviation in an investment asset or a trading strategy, typically referred to as risk, named after William F. Sharpe.'

Applying this definition to our asset in some examples:
  • The Sharpe Ratio over 5 years of Walgreens is -0.49, which is lower, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (0.55) in the same period.
  • Looking at Sharpe Ratio in of -0.66 in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively smaller, thus worse in comparison to SPY (1.06).

Sortino:

'The Sortino ratio, a variation of the Sharpe ratio only factors in the downside, or negative volatility, rather than the total volatility used in calculating the Sharpe ratio. The theory behind the Sortino variation is that upside volatility is a plus for the investment, and it, therefore, should not be included in the risk calculation. Therefore, the Sortino ratio takes upside volatility out of the equation and uses only the downside standard deviation in its calculation instead of the total standard deviation that is used in calculating the Sharpe ratio.'

Applying this definition to our asset in some examples:
  • Looking at the downside risk / excess return profile of -0.72 in the last 5 years of Walgreens, we see it is relatively lower, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (0.8)
  • Looking at downside risk / excess return profile in of -0.97 in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively smaller, thus worse in comparison to SPY (1.59).

Ulcer:

'The ulcer index is a stock market risk measure or technical analysis indicator devised by Peter Martin in 1987, and published by him and Byron McCann in their 1989 book The Investors Guide to Fidelity Funds. It's designed as a measure of volatility, but only volatility in the downward direction, i.e. the amount of drawdown or retracement occurring over a period. Other volatility measures like standard deviation treat up and down movement equally, but a trader doesn't mind upward movement, it's the downside that causes stress and stomach ulcers that the index's name suggests.'

Using this definition on our asset we see for example:
  • Compared with the benchmark SPY (8.44 ) in the period of the last 5 years, the Ulcer Index of 48 of Walgreens is higher, thus worse.
  • Compared with SPY (3.49 ) in the period of the last 3 years, the Downside risk index of 52 is higher, thus worse.

MaxDD:

'A maximum drawdown is the maximum loss from a peak to a trough of a portfolio, before a new peak is attained. Maximum Drawdown is an indicator of downside risk over a specified time period. It can be used both as a stand-alone measure or as an input into other metrics such as 'Return over Maximum Drawdown' and the Calmar Ratio. Maximum Drawdown is expressed in percentage terms.'

Which means for our asset as example:
  • The maximum DrawDown over 5 years of Walgreens is -82.4 days, which is lower, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (-24.5 days) in the same period.
  • Compared with SPY (-18.8 days) in the period of the last 3 years, the maximum drop from peak to valley of -77.8 days is smaller, thus worse.

MaxDuration:

'The Drawdown Duration is the length of any peak to peak period, or the time between new equity highs. The Max Drawdown Duration is the worst (the maximum/longest) amount of time an investment has seen between peaks (equity highs) in days.'

Using this definition on our asset we see for example:
  • Compared with the benchmark SPY (488 days) in the period of the last 5 years, the maximum time in days below previous high water mark of 1106 days of Walgreens is greater, thus worse.
  • Looking at maximum days below previous high in of 692 days in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively larger, thus worse in comparison to SPY (87 days).

AveDuration:

'The Drawdown Duration is the length of any peak to peak period, or the time between new equity highs. The Avg Drawdown Duration is the average amount of time an investment has seen between peaks (equity highs), or in other terms the average of time under water of all drawdowns. So in contrast to the Maximum duration it does not measure only one drawdown event but calculates the average of all.'

Which means for our asset as example:
  • Compared with the benchmark SPY (119 days) in the period of the last 5 years, the average days below previous high of 495 days of Walgreens is greater, thus worse.
  • Looking at average time in days below previous high water mark in of 322 days in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively greater, thus worse in comparison to SPY (20 days).

Performance (YTD)

Historical returns have been extended using synthetic data.

Allocations ()

Allocations

Returns (%)

  • Note that yearly returns do not equal the sum of monthly returns due to compounding.
  • Performance results of Walgreens are hypothetical and do not account for slippage, fees or taxes.