Stock Alert: Rite Aid Corporation Loses 20%

(RTTNews) - Shares of retail drugstore chain Rite Aid Corporation (RAD) are down more than 20% Thursday morning. The company reported fourth-quarter results today.

Although there was 33% increase in front-end sales in March, due to increased demand for personal care, paper products and OTC medications, the company expects it to decline during the remainder of the first quarter due to social distancing measures taken during the Covid-19 pandemic as well as a moderation in prescription count.

For the fourth quarter, the company reported net loss from continuing operations of $343.5 million, or $6.43 per share compared with loss from continuing operations of $255.6 million, or $4.83 per share a tear ago. Excluding items, loss per share of $0.37 missed average estimate of 4 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters at $0.15 loss per share.

Revenues from continuing operations, however, increased to $5.73 billion from $5.38 billion in the prior year's quarter. The consensus estimate was at $5.59 billion.

For the full year, adjusted net (loss) income per share is expected to be between a loss of $0.22 and income of $0.19 and revenue to be in the range of $22.5 billion to $22.9 billion. Analysts see earnings of $0.3 on revenue of $22.26 billion for the period.

RAD is currently at $11.13. It has traded in the range of $5.04- $23.88 in the last 52-weeks.