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Rite Aid (RAD) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Rite Aid closed at $8.93, marking a +1.59% move from the previous day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.58% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.45%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.13%.

Heading into today, shares of the drugstore chain had lost 2.33% over the past month, outpacing the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 2.95% and the S&P 500's loss of 2.34% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from RAD as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.02, up 110% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.37 billion, down 0.31% from the year-ago period.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for RAD. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 35% higher within the past month. RAD is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that RAD has a Forward P/E ratio of 32.56 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 8.77.

The Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 254, putting it in the bottom 1% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.

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