Rite Aid Posts Lower Q2 Loss

by Christopher Freeburn | September 20, 2012 9:53 am

Rite Aid (NYSE:RAD[1]) announced on Thursday that it lost $38.8 million during its fiscal second quarter[2]. That was significantly less than the $92.3 million the company lost in the same period last year.

The retail chain lost 5 cents a share for the quarter, down from 11 cents a share last year, and better than the 7 cents per share loss that Wall Street had anticipated, the Wall Street Journal noted.

Revenue at the nation’s third largest pharmacy chain dipped to $6.23 billion, down 0.6% from 2011. But that narrowly beat analysts, who expected revenue of $6.21 billion.

Shares of Rite Aid fell more than 2% in Thursday morning trading.

Company officials noted that Rite Aid had trimmed total expenses by 1.5% compared to 2011. Gross margin increased from 26.3% last year, to 27.5%.

The chain lowered its projected loss for the year from earlier estimates of between 13 cents and 29 cents a share, to between 9 cents and 23 cents a share. However, it also trimmed its revenue projection from an earlier forecast of between $25.3 billion to $25.7 billion, to between $25.1 billion to $25.4 billion.

Rite Aid has struggled to compete with rivals Walgreen (NYSE:WAG[3]) and CVS (NYSE:CVS[4]).

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