Hot Services Stocks For 2015

Hot Services Stocks For 2015: Rite Aid Corp (RAD)

Rite Aid Corporation, incorporated in 1968, is a retail drugstore chain in the United States. As of March 3, 2012, the Company operated drugstores in 31 states across the country and in the District of Columbia. As of March 3, 2012, it operated 4,667 stores. In the Companys stores, it sells prescription drugs and a range of other merchandise, which it calls front end products. During the fiscal year ended March 3, 2012 (fiscal 2012), prescription drug sales accounted for 68.1% of its total sales. The Company carries a range of front end products, which accounted for 31.9% of its total sales in fiscal 2012. Front end products include over-the-counter medications, health and beauty aids, personal care items, cosmetics, household items, beverages, convenience foods, greeting cards, seasonal merchandise and other everyday and convenience products, as well as photo processing. It offers a variety of products under its private brands, which contributed approximately 17% of it s front end sales in the categories where private brand products were offered in fiscal 2012. As of March 3, 2012, the Company had opened over 2,100 GNC stores-within-Rite Aid-stores. During fiscal 2012, the Company sold two owned operating stores to independent third parties.

During fiscal 2012, its stores filled approximately 295 million prescriptions and served an average of 2.1 million customers per day. The overall average size of each store in its chain is approximately 12,600 square feet. As of March 3, 2012, 60% of its stores were freestanding; 51% of its stores included a drive-thru pharmacy; 24% included one-hour photo shops, and 46% included a GNC store-within-Rite Aid-store. The Companys customers may also order prescription refills over the Internet through www.riteaid.com, or over the phone through its telephonic automated refill systems for pick up at a Rite Aid store. It has a strategic alliance with GNC, a retailer of vitamin and mineral supp le! ments.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Next week investors will be waiting for several key earnings reports including JP Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA), Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE: RAD) and Family Dollar Stores (NYSE: FDO).

• [By Maria Armental var popups = dojo.query(".socialByline .popC"); popups.forEach]

  Among the companies with shares expected to actively trade in Thursday’s session are KBR Inc.(KBR), Pier 1 Imports Inc.(PIR) and Rite (RAD) Aid Corp.

• [By Sean Williams]

  But, this concern isn't just relegated to Walgreen. Rite-Aid (NYSE: RAD  ) , for instance, only recently recorded an annual profit in fiscal 2013 -- its first such annual profit since 2006! Rite-Aid's problems flow from two fronts: weaker store traffic and extremely high debt levels, which weigh down its strategic options. Even the bigger CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS  ) is having its own set of problems. In the first-quarter it delivered a pharmacy same-store prescription increase of 2%, but saw pharmacy same-store sales dip by 1.4% because of more generic prescriptions being filled. This is a low-margin sector, so anything that can drag down margins can dramatically affect these stocks.

• [By Jeremy Bowman]

  What: Shares of Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD  ) jumped as much as 20% today after the drugstore chain turned in its first full-year profit in six years.

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksforum.com/hot-services-stocks-for-2015.html