The consumer staples industry has historically been one of the best for providing strong risk-adjusted returns.

Investors can make these returns even better by buying shares of market-leading consumer staples companies at attractive valuations. Walgreens (WBA) fits this bill, with a current price-to-earnings ratio of 17.5 (using adjusted earnings).

Walgreens is a also strong dividend stock. It’s 41 years of consecutive dividend increases qualify it to be a Dividend Aristocrat – companies with 25+ years of consecutive dividend increases.

Walgreens looks like a great value right now and ranked as a top 10 stock according to The 8 Rules of Dividend Investing in the most recent Sure Dividend Newsletter.

This article will analyze the investment prospects of Walgreens in detail.

Business Overview

Walgreens is a retail and pharmacy giant. The company was founded in Chicago in 1901 and has since grown to more than 13,000 stores in 11 different countries. Walgreens has a market capitalization of $89 billion and employs more than 400,000 people.

Walgreens’ business has changed dramatically over the past few years because of their 2014 corporate reorganization, which was a $9,3 billion transaction that combined the following entities:

The pro-forma company enjoys a very globalized presence.

Source: Walgreens Second Quarter Earnings Presentation

Today’s Walgreens operates in three primary segments:

Despite Walgreens’ sizeable venture into international markets with the Boots-Alliance transaction, the company’s Retail Pharmacy USA is still by far their largest.

Current Events & Growth Prospects

Walgreens recently reported its fiscal second quarter earnings. The company saw healthy growth, with adjusted earnings-per-share rising 7.7% in the first half of the year and 6.1% in the quarter.