What happened Rite Aid (NYSE:RAD) stock dipped 14.2% last month, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Shareholders have long been dissatisfied with the direction of the pharmacy retail business, and the company announced last month that it was moving forward with a managerial shake-up and corporate restructuring. Rite Aid said in a press release on March 12 that it would reduce its corporate employee count by 400, and that its CEO, CFO, and COO would be among those leaving the company after successors were lined up. While many investors had cited issues with upper management as a source of frustration with the company, the big executive change and news of a reverse stock split to keep it trading on the New York Stock Exchange weren't enough to stop Rite Aid shares from posting a double-digit slide. So what While Rite Aid stock continued to lose ground overall in March, the promise of new management did correspond with some stock gains, and the company anticipates that the move will result in annual savings of roughly $55 million. The shake-up will end CEO John Standley's nine-year tenure, a stretch that saw the company sell off roughly half of its stores and attempt to merge with Walgreens Boots Alliance and Albertsons -- and come up short both times. Rite Aid stock is now trading around $0.55, which still leaves it in violation of NYSE rules. The company's shareholders voted last month to approve a reverse stock split that would see shares combined to bring the stock above the $1 minimum threshold needed to avoid being delisted from the the exchange. Rite Aid's board has yet to announce whether it will proceed with a 1-for-10, 1-for-15 or 1-for-20 split. Now what Rite Aid's stock woes have continued in April, with shares trading down roughly 11% in the month so far. Rite Aid is scheduled to report fourth-quarter and full-year earnings before the market opens on April 11. Management expects sales for its 2019 fiscal year to come in between $21.8 billion and $21.95 billion -- up roughly 0.75% at the midpoint of the target. The adjusted net loss for the year is expected to be between $14 million and $33 million, working out to an adjusted per-share loss between $0.01 and $0.03. There's a good chance that the company will also give more details about the upcoming reverse stock split and management changes in conjunction with the earnings release.<doc-sep>Rite Aid on Thursday posted mixed fourth-quarter earnings results and gave a weak forecast for the upcoming fiscal year. Here's what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv: Earnings per share: A loss of 1 cent, adjusted, vs. a loss of 2 cents expected Revenue: $5.38 billion vs. $5.56 billion expected Rite Aid's pharmacy benefit manager, EnvisionRx, signed up more Medicare Part D members, helping grow the unit's revenue to $1.46 billion, a 1.2 percent increase from the year-earlier quarter. Sales of retail goods and medications at pharmacies open for at least a year increased 0.7 percent from last year. Prescription medication sales led the growth while sales of drugstore staples like candy and paper towels declined. On an unadjusted basis, Rite Aid reported a fiscal fourth-quarter loss of $273 million, or 26 cents per share, down from a gain of $767 million, or 73 cents per share a year earlier. When adjusted, Rite Aid lost 1 cent per share, better than the 2 cent per share loss analysts surveyed by Refinitiv expected. Net sales dropped to $5.38 billion from $5.39 billion, below expectations of $5.56 billion. "In the fourth quarter, we continued generating critical momentum in key areas of our business while taking important steps to position Rite Aid for future growth," outgoing CEO John Standley said in a statement. For more on investing in health-care innovation, click here to join CNBC at our Healthy Returns Summit in New York City on May 21. For fiscal 2020, Rite Aid said it expects earnings per share to fall between a loss of a penny to a gain of 4 cents. It also projected revenue to fall between $21.5 billion and $21.9 billion. Analysts were predicting earnings of 2 cents per share and revenue of $22.09 billion. The company expects same-store sales to be flat or increase up to 1 percent. Rite Aid sold nearly half of its stores to Walgreens Boots Alliance after regulators thwarted an outright sale of the company, leaving Rite Aid with a much smaller footprint — and a much weaker negotiating position than its larger rivals. Shares of Rite Aid slid nearly 1.3 percent to 56 cents in premarket trading. Rite Aid's shares have lost 66 percent of their value over the past year, with the price hovering under $1 since December. The company plans a reverse stock split at a ratio of 1-for-20, effective April 22, to prevent the New York Stock Exchange from delisting its shares. Rite Aid last month said Standley, Chief Operating Officer Kermit Crawford and Chief Financial Officer Darren Karst would all leave. The company also cut 400 full-time jobs, or 20 percent of its corporate positions. Rite Aid said the move would save $55 million a year, with about $42 million being realized in fiscal 2020.<doc-sep>
Rite Aid will chop its share count by about 95% in a bid to push the remaining shares above minimum trading requirements on the New York Stock Exchange. The board of the struggling drugstore chain approved a 1-for-20 ratio for a reverse stock split after shareholders backed the plan last month. That will cut the total number of outstanding shares from nearly 1.1 billion, to about 54 million. Rite Aid shares slid below $1 in December, prompting a removal warning from the NYSE. The drugstore chain said Wednesday after markets closed that on April 22, its shares will start trading on a split-adjusted basis. The board approved the largest ratio out of three choices it had in the plan approved by shareholders. It also could have opted for consolidating 10 or 15 shares into one. Shares closed at 57 cents on Wednesday but slipped early Thursday after the company said it lost $273 million in its fiscal fourth quarter and $422 million in the full year. Rite Aid also said Thursday that it expects adjusted results for fiscal 2020 to range from a loss of a penny per share to earnings of 4 cents per share. Analysts expect, on average, earnings of 2 cents per share, according to FactSet. Rite Aid Corp., based in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, runs 2,525 stores, mostly on the East and West coasts. It also operates a pharmacy benefit management business that runs prescription drug coverage for employers, insurers and other customers. Rite Aid has struggled, like much larger competitors CVS Health and Walgreens, with reimbursement cuts and declining profitability from generic drugs. A relatively mild flu season also hasn’t helped drugstore store sales this year. Rite Aid also is in the middle of a big management shake-up. The company said last month that several top executives would leave, including long-time CEO John Standley. He plans to depart once his successor is appointed.