Retail Winners & Losers: Rite Aid, Lowe's

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Rite Aid(RAD Quote) topped the New York Stock Exchange in the wrong way today -- as one of the day's biggest decliners.

While the overall retail market remained relatively flat, with the S&P Retail Index at 384.92, there were some big winners and losers in the sector.

Rite Aid, in particular, felt the squeeze, tanking 4% to $1.99 after a Raymond James analyst downgraded the company to market perform from outperform on a pessimistic outlook for the second quarter. The drugstore is set to release its quarterly results on Thursday.

Lowe's(LOW Quote) also tumbled 4% to $21.07 after the home improvement retailer released a cautious outlook. The company said it plans to slow store openings and forecasts earnings for the coming year between $1.24 and $1.34 a share.

Rival Home Depot(HD Quote) was also off 2% to close at $27.62 on the news.

In the winners' circle, Macy's(M Quote) received a boost after being upgraded by Citigroup to buy from hold. Analyst Deborah Weinswig said the department store has top-line and margin potential, and is impressed with its localization initiative.

Macy's ended the day up 5.5% to close at $18.87.

Shares of Buckle(BKE Quote) were also on the upswing after it issued a special one-time dividend of $1.80 a share, on top of the 20-cent regular dividend the company typically pays each quarter.