Walgreens (NYSE: WBA) has been battered lately. Just like many names in the S&P 500 in the last part of 2018, the stock sold off from its highs in a rather sharp way. For the year, it's already in bear market territory with losses of over 20%. In just the last month it's lost over 13% and just Thursday made new 52-week lows yet again. There's no doubt this is a true dog stock, but don't you love dogs?
This is one of those rare suggestions where you have to try real hard to love it - but let me explain. Stocks are pricey right now. From a technical perspective, the S&P 500 is less than 1% from hitting all-time highs. The 20% drop in Q4 last year came and went about as fast the season 7 winner of American Idol. If you missed the dip, you were out of luck, cause we're back to highs. Fundamental investors also are having a hard time here, as the S&P 500 is trading at about 17.5 times earnings, when the historical average is less than 16.5 times. This leaves many to find value plays and Walgreens may just be that play.
Having mentioned the pricing discount of Walgreens, let's look at the fundamentals. The stock currently trades at 0.38 times price to sales - which, if you ranked it against the entire S&P 500, would make it the 13th cheapest by that metric. It also ranks in the top 40 using the more common price to earnings multiple. This is just another fancy way of saying that it's cheap!
Having fallen out of favor so much lately, and being in a sector that has also found relative weakness to the S&P 500, this is going to be a tricky suggestion to many. You certainly don't want to catch a falling knife, but if you can score a discount while everyone else is focused elsewhere, then we may have an opportunity.
This is a rare suggestion to consider the stock as a long-term average in play, where you slowly add more and more to your portfolio. Many analysts feel that it will not fall much more, and traders will be looking at the $50 level for support should it make it there. Consider the $50-$54 area your building zone for a quality discounted stock that no one else wants right now.