What’s going on with Walgreens shares on Friday? – Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA)

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. WBA The stock is trading higher on Friday following a Sky News report Sycamore Partners has contacted various potential lenders to finance a possible takeover of the company.

The details: If a potential acquisition were to occur, Sycamore would acquire and privatize one of the largest providers of retail pharmacy services in the United States and United Kingdom. An industry source told Sky News that Sycamore is likely to sell both Boots and VillageMD.

The private equity firm is in talks with financial institutions including Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan to finance the deal, which is valued at about $10 billion.

Walgreens Boots Alliance has previously rejected several acquisition offers, including one from Apollo Global Management. In 2019, the company also received a takeover offer from KKR.

How to buy Walgreens stock

By now, you’re probably curious about how you can participate in the Walgreens Boots Alliance market – whether by buying shares or even trying to bet against the company.

Buying stocks is usually done through a brokerage account. You can find a list of possible trading platforms here. Many providers allow you to purchase “fractional shares,” which allows you to own shares of stock without having to purchase a whole share. For example, owning some stocks like Berkshire Hathaway can cost thousands of dollars to own just one share. However, if you only want to invest a fraction of that, you can do so with brokers.

In the case of Walgreens Boots Alliance, which is trading for $10.29 at the time of publication, $100 would buy you 9.72 shares.

If you want to bet against a company, the process is more complex. You will need access to an options trading platform or a broker that allows you to short a stock by lending you the shares to sell. The process of short selling a stock can be found in this resource. Otherwise, if your broker allows you to trade options, you can either buy a put option or sell a call option at a strike price that is higher than the current stock price – either way, you can benefit from the decline in the stock price.

Related link: Broadcom Reaches $1 Trillion Milestone: The Next Great Tech Giant?

WBA price promotion: At press time, shares of Walgreens Boots are trading 3.75% higher at $10.10, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Image: Image via Shutterstock