Rite Aid Corp. (NYSE: RAD) is seeing its shares pummeled on the back of its preliminary 2015 outlook and May sales data. The news will come as a sharp blow in the turnaround, particularly when you consider how strong the sales figures had been in recent months. The news may also bring several analyst tempering calls in the hours and days ahead.
Same-store sales rose by 3.5% for the five weeks ended May 31, 2014, over the prior-year period. The company’s front-end figures were up 0.5%, and the pharmacy same-store sales rose 5%, even when you consider an approximate 156 basis points negative impact from new generic introductions. Rite Aid even said that the prescription count at comparable stores was up by 3.2%.
Rite Aid’s total drugstore sales were up 2.5% to $2.484 billion for the five-week period. Prescriptions accounted for 68% of all drugstore sales, and third-party prescription sales represented 97.4% of pharmacy sales.
This is still a gain, but the gain is not enough to maintain guidance for the quarter and year. The company expects its quarterly adjusted EBITDA to be between $275 million and $285 million. It also sees net income to be between $35 million and $45 million, generating roughly $0.04 in earnings per share. That adjusted EBITDA is said to trail last year’s and sadly enough the Thomson Reuters estimate for the May quarter is $0.08 in earnings per share.
Rite Aid has also revised its 2015 guidance as a result, accounting for a weaker May and also accounting for generic purchase price reductions that are expected for the remainder of the year. New 2015 guidance is as follows:
- Adjusted EBITDA of $1.275 billion to $1.35 billion
- Net income of $298 million to $408 million
- Earnings per share of $0.30 to $0.40.
Thomson Reuters has the consensus EPS estimate at $0.39 for this fiscal year.
Rite Aid shares have unsurprisingly sold off on the news, down 9.5% at $7.70 after the first 45 minutes of trading on Thursday. What investors need to consider is that Rite Aid shares have a 52-week low of $2.62, and this stock was just at $1.00 late in 2012.
Trading volume is through the roof, with 44 million shares traded in the first 45 minutes of Thursday’s session. The average daily volume here is 24 million shares.
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