Shares of Rite Aid Corp. slumped 3.5% in premarket trade Thursday, after the drugstore chain that is being acquired by Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. matched loss expectations but missed on sales. Net income for the quarter to Sept. 2 rose to $170.7 million, or 16 cents a share, from $14.8 million, or a penny a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, the adjusted per-share loss of 1 cent matched the FactSet consensus. Revenue fell 4.4% to $7.68 billion from $8.03 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $7.84 billion, as pharmacy segment sales declined 3.4%. Same-store sales declined 3.4%, while the FactSet average of two analyst estimates was a decline of 2.2%, as pharmacy sales fell 4.6% and front-end sales declined 0.9%. Separately, the company named Kermit Crawford as chief operating officer. Walgreens received regulatory clearance last week to buy Rite Aid assets, with store purchases expected to begin in October and be completed in spring 2018. Rite Aid’s stock has plunged 42% over the past three months, while Walgreens shares have gained 1.4% and the S&P 500 has tacked on 2.7%.
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