Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. was upgraded to buy from hold at Evercore ISI after the bank said in a note published Wednesday that it made “incorrect assumptions” about the company’s performance potential. Executives have managed an earnings per share inflection and have cut costs while executing an leadership restructuring and handling a tough reimbursement environment, the note said. Challenges remain in the reimbursement area, Evercore wrote, and analysts forecast first-quarter 2016 results that are slightly below consensus, but the bank’s upgrade is based on multi-year growth. The earnings estimate for Walgreens Boots Alliance for the first quarter is 96 cents per share, according to FactSet. Walgreens shares are down 5.2% for the past three months while the S&P is up 0.3% for the same period.
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