Jefferies analysts Mark Wiltamuth and Brian Tanquilut believe the antitrust hurdles for Walgreens Boots Alliance's (WBA) acquisition of Rite Aid (RAD) will be cleared and that a deal for a pharmacy benefit manager may be next. With Rite Aid "bringing a PBM story back to Walgreens," the analysts see potential for an acquisition of Express Scripts (ESRX) in 2018. They caution, however, that the "very large" acquisition approaching $90B in enterprise value would require Walgreens to significantly lever up while also issuing new equity. The analysts believe a deal could be 12%-14% accretive to earnings. They assume a 25% buyout premium to the current Express Scripts share level. Wiltamuth and Tanquilut reiterate a Hold rating on Walgreens with a reduced price target of $90 citing management's recent "cooling" of investor expectations.