Walgreens shoots up

One of the major investment letters advised their subscribers to buy Walgreens (WAG) on a dip and a lot of investors took their advice. If you were on board great, but it may not be too late.

Walgreens Co. is a national retail pharmacy chain and considered the leader in innovative drugstore retailing. Walgreens pioneered many store features that are becoming standards in the industry. Among those concepts are: Computerized pharmacies, Point-of-sale scanning, Freestanding stores with drive-thru pharmacies, and Intercom Plus, Walgreens advanced new pharmacy computer and workflow system. Intercom Plus allows pharmacists to spend more time counseling patients by assigning administrative tasks to pharmacy technicians.

Price momentum has been very positive recently.  The stock trades around 35.67 which is above its 50 day average of 33.89.  That 50 day moving average has risen steadily these days by 20.54% in the last month.  The stock has an 88% Barchart technical buy signal after rising in price 5.21% in the last month.  The Relative Strength Index is a steady 94.58%.

Although the Wall Street brokerage analysts only predict an increase in sales of 5.90% this year and 5.10% next year they have double digit EPS forecasts,  They estimate that earnings will rise 14.70% this year, 14.90% next year and continue for the next 5 years at an annual rate of 13.45%,

The general investor likes this company and the CAPS members on Motley Fool bet the stock will beat the market with a vote of 1947 to 118 with the more experienced All Stars in agreement 507 to 14.

There have been 18 recent favorable articles by columnists.

I hope you bought on the dip but if you didn't the stocks has:

• Solid and recent upward price momentum
• Barchart 88% Technical buy signal
• Wall Street analysts predicting increased sales and double digit earnings growth
• A positive investor sentiment.

Jim Van Meerten is an advisor to Marketocracy Capital Management who uses his model portfolios not only to manage their mutual funds but also their clients Separately Managed Accounts. You can read his blogs about those model portfolios and investing here and on Barchart Portfolio Blogs. Please leave a comment below or email JimVanMeerten@gmail.com.

Disclosure: Jim Van Meerten through Marketocracy Capital Management has an interest in the stocks mentioned in this blog.