Rite Aid Swallows Bitter Pill

Shares of drug store chain Rite Aid(RAD Quote) plummeted almost 30% Thursday, after the company posted a wider-than-expected fiscal third-quarter loss and slashed its full-year outlook.

In the quarter ended Dec. 1, Rite Aid posted a loss attributable to common stockholders of $93 million, or 12 cents a share, vs. a loss of $6.8 million, or a loss of a penny a share, in the year-ago period. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a loss of 7 cents a share.

Revenue increased to $6.52 billion from $4.32 billion, aided by the company's acquisition of Brooks Eckerd stores in June. Same-store sales increased 0.7%. Analysts expected revenue of $6.65 billion.

The company blamed slow holiday sales and a weak cold season for cutting fiscal 2008 guidance. It now expects sales of between $24.3 billion and $24.6 billion with same-store sales improving between 1% and 2%, compared to its earlier guidance of sales between $24.5 billion and $25.1 billion, with same-store sales increases of between 1.3% and 3.3%. It sees a net loss of between 27 cents and 31 cents a share.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expect a loss of 21 cents a share on sales of $24.77 billion.

Shares dipped as low as $2.88 in morning trading, but were more recently trading 27.6% lower at $2.97.