Rite Aid Corp. RAD stock dropped 7% in premarket trades after the drug store chain reported a wider-than-expected loss and issued guidance that fell short of estimates. Rite Aid said it lost $241.3 million, or $4.39 loss per share in its fiscal fourth quarter, compared to a loss of $389.06 million, or $7.18 a share in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted loss in the most recent quarter was $1.24 a share, wider than the loss estimate of 78 cents a share in a survey by FactSet. Fourth-quarter revenue rose to $6.09 billion from $6.07 billion and beat the analyst estimate of $5.63 billion. For fiscal 2024, Rite Aid expects revenue of $21.7 billion to $22.1 billion, below the analyst forecast of $22.88 billion. The company expects to report a fiscal 2024 net loss of $439 million to $466 million, below the most recent analyst projection of $199 million. “Our outlook for fiscal 2024 assumes the negative impacts of reimbursement rate declines, a reduction in demand for COVID vaccines and testing and a decrease in revenues at Elixir,” the company said.
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