Rite Aid's Q4 Sales Surge 24%, Bottom Line Beats

Rite Aid Corporation RAD reported its fourth quarter results early Thursday morning. The company said that it earned $0.07 per share on revenue of $8.3 billion. Analysts were expecting the company to earn $0.06 per share on revenue of $8.4 billion. Shares of Rite Aid were unchanged as the company has agreed back in October 2015 to be acquired by Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc WBA. The company said that it expects the transaction to close in the bottom half of calendar 2016. Rite Aid noted that its same-store sales for the quarter fell 0.6 percent over the prior year, consisting of a 0.8 percent decline in pharmacy sales and a 0.4 percent decrease in front-end sales. Net income for the quarter rose to $76.1 million from $65.2 million. "Our positive fourth-quarter results helped us deliver a successful fiscal year that reflects the tremendous progress we're making to expand our retail healthcare offering," said Rite Aid Chairman and CEO John Standley. "In the fourth quarter, we generated nearly $40 million of growth in Adjusted EBITDA, including an increase in our Retail Pharmacy Segment and strong results from our new Pharmacy Services Segment. This was one of many key highlights of fiscal 2016, which was a transformational year that saw us acquire EnvisionRx, launch the ground-breaking wellness+ with Plenti program, complete our 2,000th Wellness store and exceed $30 billion in revenues for the first time."