Rite Aid tops 1Q profit expectations, meets revenue forecasts

Rite Aid Corp. (RAD) on Thursday reported fiscal first-quarter net income of $18.8 million.

The Camp Hill, Pennsylvania-based company said it had profit of 2 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for costs related to mergers and acquisitions, were 4 cents per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 2 cents per share.

The drugstore chain posted revenue of $6.65 billion in the period, which met Street forecasts.

Rite Aid expects full-year earnings to be 14 cents to 22 cents per share, with revenue in the range of $30.7 billion to $31.2 billion.

Rite Aid shares have risen 19 percent since the beginning of the year. The stock has increased 25 percent in the last 12 months.

_____

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap ) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on RAD at http://www.zacks.com/ap/RAD

_____

Keywords: Rite Aid, Earnings Report