Rite Aid Corporation Shares Fall on Dismal Fourth Quarter Results

Shares of Rite Aid Corp. were falling on Thursday over 12% in pre-market trading after the drugstore retailer reported fourth quarter financial results.

The company revealed wider than expected losses that seemed to have spooked investors.

For the fourth quarter, net loss totaled $324.7 million, or $6.08 per share, after a loss of $273.0 million, or $5.15 per share, last year.

Adjusted loss was 37 cents compared to the FactSet consensus for a loss of 15 cents per share. Revenue of $5.73 billion was up from $5.38 billion last year and ahead of the $5.59 billion FactSet consensus.

Retail pharmacy came in at $3.99 billion, up 0.6% from last year, while pharmacy services revenue was $1.8 billion, up 23.1% year-over-year.

Retail pharmacy same-store sales saw a growth of 1.6%. The FactSet consensus was for a same-store sales increase of 2.4%.

Rite Aid has plans to hire 5,000 full-time and part-time workers and said its comparable front-end sales rose 33% in March due to increased demand for personal care, paper products and increases in 30-day prescription count.

CEO Heyward Donigan said during the earnings call, “Our top priority as a company right now is serving our communities, of course our Rite Aid customers, our EnvisionRxOptions, employer and health plan clients during this unprecedented COVID-19 crisis and I must say I have over 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry including dealing with SAARS and the swine flu which I will never forget. But I don’t think any of us in healthcare has experienced something like this. So it is new territory for all of us and as a leader I’ve never been more proud than I am right now of our Rite Aid team. Together we’re really working around the clock making sure that we can continue to serve our communities. And the importance of the supply chain has never been more evident and our distribution center teams are doing a good job despite the great difficulty we have getting as many essential supplies as we would really like to have for our customers.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE: RAD) and have not been compensated for this article.