Walgreens Adopts New Measures To Fight Against Coronavirus

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) has taken a number of measures to help patients fight against Coronavirus. The most notable initiative, like peer CVS Health (NYSE:CVS), is that the company has decided to waive off prescription drug home delivery charges during the time of pandemic. Further, there will be no delivery charges on any purchase on Walgreens.com.

While doing so, in order to ensure proper patent accessibility to the medication, the company has started to collaborate with health plan partners, physicians and state officials for seamless execution of services like 90-day refills and early refill authorizations.

Further, the company stated that 24-hours online medical services like Walgreens Pharmacy Chat, available through the Walgreens mobile app and pharmacy drive-thru as alternative ways to access medications, can be well utilized now.

Notably, Find Care service can effortlessly connect customers to a large number of telehealth options available through Walgreens app. Find Care can also help patients to access a range of locally-provided health care services.

The company has also put purchase limit on certain items that customers are stockpiling now. This inventory accumulation by the company is aimed at wider distribution of available products.

In this regard, the company recently collaborated with industry partners as well as healthcare administrators to provide access to government-run COVID-19 testing facilities. It will provide temporary space at select locations, outside of the stores where non-Walgreens health personnel will administer COVID-19 testing. This will be performed in collaboration with the Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Going by Forbes, apart from Walgreens Boots, Walmart (NYSE:WMT), Target (NYSE:TGT), and CVS Health will play a central role in the U.S. government's plan to make COVID-19 tests accessible across the country as the outbreak of the illness worsens.

Meanwhile, shares of Walgreens Boots rallied 12.6% on Friday, following its series of initiatives related to the coronavirus-led damage control. On proper execution of the company’s recent measures to help stay-at-home initiatives against the coronavirus-led backdrop, we believe it to register greater customer adoption in this period.

Share Price Performance

Over the past three months, the stock has lost 19% compared with the industry’s 19.5% decline.

Zacks Rank and Key Picks

Walgreens Boots currently carries a Zacks Rank # 3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks from the broader medical space are ResMed Inc. (NYSE:RMD) , Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) and Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:HRC) .

ResMed has a projected long-term earnings growth rate of 12%. It currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Medtronic’s long-term earnings growth rate is estimated at 7.4%. The company presently carries a Zacks Rank #2.

Hill-Rom’s long-term earnings growth rate is estimated at 11.1%. It currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.

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