Rite Aid Corp., the nation's third biggest drugstore chain, reported Thursday that it lost $960.4 million in its fourth quarter, mostly the result of a non-cash income tax charge, as it worked to absorb more than 1,800 stores acquired last year.Rite Aid said it expects to lose money in fiscal 2009 for a third straight year and that sales would be below what analysts are predicting. The company blamed a tough economy and continued spending to integrate the 1,850 Brooks and Eckerd stores it acquired last June in an effort to keep pace with its larger rivals, Walgreen Co. and CVS Corp.

Its shares fell 23 cents, or 8.4 percent, to $2.51 in premarket trading.

Rite Aid's chairman and chief executive, Mary Sammons, played up the company's improving trends as it works to raise sales at stores that analysts criticize as lagging well behind those of its competitors.



"During the quarter we increased pharmacy sales, filled more prescriptions, improved front-end sales and grew gross margin rates, and we did it as worries about a recession increased and retail sales softened in general," Sammons said in a statement.

The fourth-quarter loss for the Camp Hill, Pa.-based company amounts to $1.20 per share for the three months ending March 1. It earned $7.1 million, or a penny a share, in last year's fourth quarter.

Not counting the $894.9 million non-cash income tax charge, the Camp Hill, Pa.-based company said it would have lost $65.5 million, or 8 cents a share in the latest period. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected a loss of 7 cents a share and typically exclude one-time charges from their estimates.

Revenues rose 50 percent to $6.82 billion from $4.53 billion a year earlier, primarily due to last year's acquisition. Analysts expected slightly higher revenue of $6.87 billion.

Same-store sales, or sales in stores open at least one year, rose 1.3 percent.

For the year, Rite Aid lost $1.1 billion, or $1.54 per share, compared to last year's loss of $4.7 million, or a penny per share, much of it due to the non-cash income tax charge. The company also said it spent $154.2 million to integrate the Brooks and Eckerd stores.

Revenues rose to $24.3 billion from last year's $17.4 billion.

Rite Aid said it anticipates a 2009 loss between $260 million and $375 million, or 34 cents to 48 cents per share, with revenue in a range of $26.7 billion to $27.2 billion. Analysts had forecast a smaller loss of 18 cents per share on higher revenue of $27.6 billion.

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On the Net:

Rite Aid: http://www.riteaid.com

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