Rite Aid Same-store Sales Down For The Month Of January, Up For The Year

Rite Aid Corp. said same-store sales for the four weeks ending Jan. 23 were down 1.4% from the same period last year.January front-end same-store sales were down 1.9%, while the prescription count was down 1%. Prescriptions sales totaled 70.5% of drugstore sales and third-party prescription sales were 97.7% of pharmacy sales. Drugstore sales for the month were down 1.3% to $2 billion from $2.03 billion last year. Same-store sales for the47 weeks ending Jan. 23 2016 were up 1.5%, with front-end same-store sales up 0.3% and pharmacy same-store sales up 2%. Same-store sales based on prescription count were up 0.4%. Drugstore sales for the period were up 1.4% to $24.1 billion versus $23.8 billion for the year earlier period. Prescription sales were 69.1% of drugstore sales and third-party prescription sales were 97.8% of pharmacy sales. Rite Aid shares are down 0.7% in premarket trading, and down 4.1% for the past three months. The S&P 500 is down 9.9% for the past three months.