Is Rite Aid Poised to Disappoint?
NEW YORK (
) -- All eyes will be on
Rite Aid
(RAD) - Get Report
on Thursday when it reports its second-quarter earnings results.
The drugstore has been in the news this week -- the bad news, that is: Its stock continues sea-sawing. It was downgraded by an analyst. And a research firm identified it as a company with
the highest probability of filing for bankruptcy
in the next 12 months.
On Tuesday, Raymond James analyst John Ransom
downgraded the company to market perform
from outperform on a pessimistic outlook for the quarter.
Ransom said same-store sales fell during each month of the quarter, declining the most in August.
Analysts expect Rite Aid to post a loss of 47 cents per share in fiscal 2010, on $26.1 billion in revenue.
And things don't look like they will get much better in during the rest of the year, as comparisons get difficult in the third quarter.
Rite Aid has been working to improve store performance and cut debt, and has closed more than 100 locations over the past year.
Shares inthe company gained more than 79% since the beginning of June, reaching an annual high last week of $2.35. But shares were down 3.5% to $1.92 in morning trading on Wednesday.
Rival
Walgreen
(WAG)
is set to report its quarterly results on Sept. 29.
-- Reported by Jeanine Poggi in New York
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