10 Battered Stocks on Friday

7. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

Walgreens Boots Alliance declined by 4.9 percent to end Friday’s trading at $10.68 each as investors resorted to profit-taking while waiting on the sidelines ahead of more concrete updates on its potential acquisition by Sycamore Partners.

WBA has been trading sideways over the past few weeks on speculations of a $10-billion buyout deal of WBA by Sycamore, which the two have put on the table since December last year.

Hopes were further boosted by a social media post from credit information provider Octus on Monday that Morgan Stanley, UBS, and other private lenders are working on a $10 billion package to back Sycamore Partners’ potential buyout.

However, analysts said that WBA’s drop was due to the company already running too far on the transaction hopes.

Deutsche Bank, in its recent report, recommended selling WBA stocks and cut its price target to $9.