Rite Aid has reported its second-straight quarterly profit and first annual gain in six years, as generic drugs, an increase in prescriptions and a drop in some expenses helped the nation's third largest drugstore chain.
The Camp Hill, Pa., company's stock jumped nearly 19 percent, or 34 cents, to reach a new 52-week high price of $2.13 in Thursday morning trading after results were announced.
Rite Aid Corp. said it earned $124.4 million, or 13 cents per share, in its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended March 2. That compares with a loss of $163.8 million, or 18 cents per share, in the previous year's quarter.
Revenue fell about 10 percent to $6.45 billion compared with last year's quarter, which had an additional week.
Analysts, on average, expected the company to break even on a per-share basis for the period, and take in $6.44 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.
