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Tag: drug stores

  • Rite Aid is closing nearly 100 stores as part of its bankruptcy. See the list | CNN Business

    Rite Aid is closing nearly 100 stores as part of its bankruptcy. See the list | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Rite Aid, which had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, is now preparing to shed almost 100 stores nationwide as part of its restructuring efforts.

    The first tranche of stores to be sold — both leased and owned — is located in nine states, according to A&G Real Estate Partners, which is advising the drug store chain on its real estate portfolio. The states include California (17 stores), Maryland (4), Michigan (16), New Jersey (8), New York (17), Ohio (4), Oregon (2), Pennsylvania (17), New Hamphire (2) and Washington (10), Alabama (1), Idaho (1).

    The writing has been on the wall for some time for Rite Aid, the third-biggest standalone pharmacy chain in the US, as the entire drug store retail sector struggles to compete with Amazon and big-box chains like Walmart, Target and Costco moving deeper into the space and offering more customer-friendly alternatives to the nationwide pharmacy chains.

    Compounding its problems were legal troubles stemming from accusations of filing unlawful opioid prescriptions for customers.

    Rite Aid is in much worse financial shape than its competitors. Over the past six years, Rite Aid has tallied nearly $3 billion in losses.

    While it has secured $3.5 billion in financing and debt reduction agreements from lenders to keep the company afloat through its bankruptcy, Rite Aid said it would accelerate store closures and sell off some of its businesses, including prescription benefit provider Elixir Solutions. Bankruptcy could also help resolve the company’s legal disputes at a vastly reduced cost.

    As it reevaluates its portfolio of stores, these are the Rite Aid locations that are currently up for sale:

    • SEC Alabama Ave. & Pike St. in Monroeville, Alabama
    • 920 East Valley Blvd in Alhambra, California
    • 571 Bellevue Road in Atwater, California
    • 3029 Harbor Blvd. in Costa Mesa, California
    • 139 North Grand Ave. in Covina, California
    • 20572 Homestead Road in Cupertino, California
    • 24829 Del Pradoin Dana Point, California
    • 7859 Firestone Blvd. in Downey, California
    • 8509 Irvine Center Drive in Irvine, California
    • 15800 Imperial Hwy. in La Mirada, California
    • 30222 Crown Valley Pkwy. in Laguna Niguel, California
    • 4046 South Centinela Ave. in Los Angeles, California
    • 499 Alvarado St. in Monterey, California
    • 1670 Main St. in Ramona, California
    • 1309 Fulton Ave. in Sacramento, California
    • 901 Soquel Ave. in Santa Cruz, California
    • 19701 Yorba Linda Blvd. in Yorba Linda, California
    • 25906 Newport Road in Menifee, California
    • 1600 North Main St. in Meridian, Idaho
    • 5808 Ritchie Hwy. in Baltimore, Maryland
    • 5 Bel Air South Pkwy. in Bel Air, Maryland
    • 728 East Pulaski Hwy. in Elkton, Maryland
    • 7501 Ritchie Hwy. In Glen Burnie, Maryland
    • 35250 South Gratiot Ave. in Clinton Township, Michigan
    • 36485 Garfield Road. in Clinton Township, Michigan
    • 1900 East 8 Mile Road. in Detroit, Michigan
    • 25922 Middlebelt Road. in Farmington Hills, Michigan
    • 924 West Main St. in Fremont, Michigan
    • 715 South Clinton St. in Grand Ledge, Michigan
    • 3100 East Michigan Ave. in Jackson, Michigan
    • 15250 24 Mile Road in Macomb, Michigan
    • 1243 U.S. 31 South in Manistee, Michigan
    • 15181 Telegraph Road in Redford, Michigan
    • 320 N Main St. in Redford, Michigan
    • 51037 Van Dyke Ave. in Shelby Township, Michigan
    • 109 North Whittemore St. in St. Johns, Michigan
    • 102 North Centerville Road in Sturgis, Michigan
    • 9155 Telegraph Road in Taylor, Michigan
    • 47300 Pontiac Trail in Wixom, Michigan
    • 205-209 Main St. in Berlin, New Hampshire
    • Grove St. and Route 101 in Peterborough, New Hampshire
    • 37 Juliustown Road in Browns Mills, New Jersey
    • 1426 Mount Ephraim Ave. in Camden, New Jersey
    • 1636 Route 38, Suite 49 in Lumberton, New Jersey
    • 210 Bridgeton Pike in Mantua, New Jersey
    • 108 Swedesboro Road in Mullica Hill, New Jersey
    • Route 33 and Robbinsville- Edinburg Road in Robbinsville, New Jersey
    • 773 Hamilton St. in Somerset, New Jersey
    • 1434 South Black Horse Pike in Williamstown, New Jersey
    • 836 Sunrise Hwy. in Bay Shore, New York
    • 452 Main St. in Buffalo, New York
    • 15 Arnold St. in Buffalo, New York
    • 901 Merrick Road in Copiague, New York
    • 577 Larkfield Road in East Northport, New York
    • 2 Whitney Ave. in Floral Park, New York
    • 115-10 Merrick Blvd. in Jamaica, New York
    • 2453 Elmwood Ave. in Kenmore, New York
    • 3131 Hempstead Turnpike in Levittown, New York
    • 700-43 Patchogue-Yaphank in Medford, New York
    • 4188 Broadway in New York, New York
    • 195 8th Ave. in New York, New York
    • 1033 St. Nicholas Ave. in New York, New York
    • 593 Old Town Road in Port Jefferson, New York
    • 101 Main St. in Sayville, New York
    • 65 Route 111 in Smithtown, New York
    • 397 Sunrise Hwy. in West Patchogue, New York
    • 120 South Main St. in New Carlisle, Ohio
    • Euclid & Strathmore in East Cleveland, Ohio
    • 1204 Gettysburg Ave. in Dayton, Ohio
    • 2323 Broadview Road in Cleveland, Ohio
    • 981 Medford Center in Medford, Oregon
    • 4346 N.E. Cully Blvd. in Portland, Oregon
    • 2722 West 9th St. in Chester, Pennsylvania
    • 5990 University Blvd. in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania
    • 1709 Liberty Ave. in Erie, Pennsylvania
    • 6090 Route 30 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania
    • 301 Eisenhower Drive in Hanover, Pennsylvania
    • 1730 Wilmington Road in New Castle, Pennsylvania
    • 700 Stevenson Blvd. in New Kensington, Pennsylvania
    • 350 Main St. in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania
    • 5612 North 5th St. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    • 2401 East Venango St. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    • 3000-02 Reed St. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    • 7941 Oxford Ave. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    • 136 North 63rd St. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    • 10 South Center St. in Pottsville, Pennsylvania
    • 351 Brighton Ave. in Rochester, Pennsylvania
    • 208 East Central Ave. in Titusville, Pennsylvania
    • SR 940 and Main St. in White Haven, Pennsylvania
    • 3620 Factoria Blvd SE in Bellevue, Washington
    • 11919 NE 8th St in Bellevue, Washington
    • 222 Telegraph Road in Bellingham, Washington
    • 1195 Boblett St. in Blaine, Washington
    • 17125 SE 272nd St. in Covington, Washington
    • 10103 Evergreen Way in Everett, Washington
    • 2518 196th St SW in Lynnwood, Washington
    • 3202 132nd St., S.E. in Mill Creek, Washington
    • 601 South Grady Way in Renton, Washington
    • 2707 Rainier Ave. in South Seattle, Washington

    – CNN’s David Goldman contributed to this story

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  • Rite Aid files for bankruptcy | CNN Business

    Rite Aid files for bankruptcy | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sunday, a casualty of a miserable environment for drug stores, exacerbated by its runner-up status to bigger chains and expensive legal battles for allegedly filling unlawful opioid prescriptions.

    The bankruptcy was not a surprise. Its bigger rivals, CVS and Walgreens, are also facing many of the same problems. They, too, are closing stores as Amazon and big-box chains like Walmart, Target and Costco serve as more customer-friendly alternatives to nationwide pharmacy chains.

    But Rite Aid is in much worse financial shape than its competitors and unable to weather the storm that has been beating down on the industry. On Thursday, it filed a notice to the US Securities and Exchange Commission saying it would be unable to file its latest quarterly financial report because it was looking at “strategic alternatives,” which is Wall Street speak for “considering bankruptcy.”

    In that filing, the company said it expected its losses would increase significantly in the past quarter, which is saying something, considering it lost about three quarters of a billion dollars between March 2022 and March 2023 — and another $307 billion between March and May this year. Over the past six years, Rite Aid has tallied nearly $3 billion in losses.

    At the beginning of June, the last time the company filed a financial report, Rite Aid had just $135.5 million of cash on hand -— and $3.3 billion in long-term debt, which exceeded the value of the company’s assets by nearly $1 billion. With rising interest rates, that debt wasn’t cheap to finance.

    “It was always a matter of when, not if, Rite Aid would file for bankruptcy,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, in a note to investors. “The company has been deep in the red for the past six years.”

    The company said in a statement it had secured $3.5 billion in financing and debt reduction agreements from lenders to keep the company afloat through its bankruptcy.

    It said it would accelerate its pace of store closures and sell off some of its businesses, including prescription benefit provider Elixir Solutions. Bankruptcy could also help resolve the company’s legal disputes at a vastly reduced cost.

    As part of the bankruptcy plan, Rite Aid appointed a new CEO, Jeff Stein, who will also serve as the head of restructuring and a board member. Stein, in the statement, said the company plans to remain in business.

    “With the support of our lenders, we look forward to strengthening our financial foundation, advancing our transformation initiatives and accelerating the execution of our turnaround strategy,” he said. “In doing so, we will be even better able to deliver the healthcare products and services our customers and their families rely on -— now and into the future.”

    Rite Aid has had an interim CEO since January 2023.

    Rite Aid’s losing battle against mounting debt was exacerbated by its legal troubles stemming from accusations of filing unlawful opioid prescriptions for customers.

    The Department of Justice filed suit against the company in March, claiming that it knowingly processed “unlawful prescriptions for controlled substances.” That stands in violation of the False Claims Act and Controlled Substances Act. The government accused Rite Aid of missing “obvious red flags” when it filled the prescriptions for addictive pain killers.

    When the US Justice Department filed its lawsuit, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the department would use “every tool at our disposal” to hold Rite Aid accountable for contributing to the opioid epidemic.”

    Walgreens, CVS and others settled similar lawsuits over the past few years, but they remain in better financial shape and were largely able to weather the tens of billions of dollars owed to various government agencies in settlements.

    More than half a million people have died from drug overdoses in the United States between 1999 and 2020, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Rite Aid is a distant third-largest nationwide standalone pharmacy chain in the United States — and the seventh largest pharmacy overall, when taking into account big box chains. It has more than 2,200 stores in 17 states.

    It was offered a $17 billion lifeline in 2015 when Walgreens offered to buy the chain. But the deal was met with stiff scrutiny from US regulators who feared the combination would violate federal antitrust laws and reduce competition in the drug store market.

    Ultimately, in 2017, the companies agreed to a smaller, $4.4 billion deal, in which Walgreens bought just under 2,000 Rite Aid locations, leaving Rite Aid diminished in stature and unable to compete at the scale of its bigger rivals.

    — CNN’s Nathaniel Meyersohn and Juliana Liu contributed to this report

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  • Walgreens Is Looking for a New CEO. Why That Could Make the Stock a Winner.

    Walgreens Is Looking for a New CEO. Why That Could Make the Stock a Winner.

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    Usually, the announcement of a CEO change at a struggling company brings optimism and maybe even a stock pop. Not for


    Walgreens Boots Alliance


    Its shares have tumbled since Rosalind Brewer announced on Sept. 1 that she was stepping down. That could present a buying opportunity if the company makes the “right” choice…

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  • Airbnb, Blackstone to join S&P 500, while Deere will replace Walgreens in S&P 100

    Airbnb, Blackstone to join S&P 500, while Deere will replace Walgreens in S&P 100

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    Shares of investment giant Blackstone Inc. and vacation-home rental platform Airbnb Inc. rallied after hours on Friday after both won the nod to join the S&P 500 index
    SPX
    later this month.

    The announcement, from S&P Dow Jones Indices, said that the change would take hold before the start of trading on Monday, Sept. 18. The move, among others announced Friday, will “ensure each index is more representative of its market-capitalization range,” according to a release.

    Airbnb
    ABNB,
    +0.87%
    currently has a market value of $83.98 billion, and its shares are up 64.7% so far this year. Blackstone
    BX,
    -1.77%    ,
    currently worth $129.29 billion, has seen its stock rise 43.6% year-to-date.

    Shares of Airbnb and Blackstone were up 5.7% and 4.8%, respectively, after hours on Friday.

    Blackstone and Airbnb will replace Lincoln National Corp.
    LNC,
    +2.14%
    and Newell Brands Inc.
    NWL,
    +1.23%
    in the index, S&P Dow Jones Indices said on Friday. In the process, Lincoln and Newell will join the S&P SmallCap 600.

    Blackstone in July said it had reached $1 trillion in assets under management, aided by a growth trajectory that it said had outpaced its private equity rivals.

    “We’ve established an unparalleled global platform of leading business lines, offering over 70 distinct investment strategies,” Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman told analysts. “We believe our clients view us as the gold standard in alternative asset management.”

    Meanwhile, Airbnb last month said that travelers were seeking longer stays and bigger properties in pricier areas, as the rebound in travel endures despite a tidal wave of inflation last year. The company’s second-quarter results and third-quarter sales forecast topped Wall Street’s estimates.

    Meanwhile, S&P 500 member Deere & Co.
    DE,
    +1.94%
    will replace Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.
    WBA,
    -7.43%
    in the S&P 100, S&P Dow Jones Indices said on Friday. That change also takes hold on Sept. 18. S&P Dow Jones Indices said Walgreens “is no longer representative of the megacap market space” but will stay in the S&P 500.

    Shares of Deere fell 0.2% after hours. Walgreens stock was up 0.4%.

    Don’t miss: Walgreens CEO Roz Brewer steps down with stock at decade-and-a-half low

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  • Ozempic and other weight-loss drugs boost pharmacy sales at Rite Aid

    Ozempic and other weight-loss drugs boost pharmacy sales at Rite Aid

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    Rite Aid Corp. said Thursday that its fiscal first-quarter pharmacy sales got a boost from a new class of drug.

    Pharmacy sales, which rose 3.4% from a year ago, were boosted by higher sales of Ozempic and other GLP-1 receptor agonists, which are used to treat Type 2 diabetes and obesity.

    The higher sales did not translate into profit, however.

    “As the cost of these drugs is also high, the impact of the increase in volume of these drugs on our gross profit dollars is minimal,” Rite Aid Chief Financial Officer Matthew Schroeder told analysts on the company’s earnings call, according to a FactSet transcript.

    Still, the company
    RAD,
    +2.96%
    cheered investors by raising its full-year revenue guidance due to the sales bump from Ozempic and other high-dollar GLP-1 drugs. It now expects revenue of $22.6 billion to $23 billion, ahead of the FactSet consensus of $22.3 billion.

    Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus, which are made by Novo Nordisk
    NOVO.B,
    +0.17%

    NOVO.B,
    +0.17%    ,
    and Mounjaro, which is made by Eli Lilly & Co.
    LLY,
    +1.34%    ,
    have become so popular in the U.S. that supplies have at times run short and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been forced to warn patients against using knockoff versions.

    The drugs are administered by injection and mimic the effects of GLP-1, a gut hormone that can help control blood-sugar levels and reduce appetite. GLP stands for glucagon-like peptide.

    Ozempic, Rybelsus and Mounjaro have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment of Type 2 diabetes, while Wegovy is approved for people with obesity and for certain people with excess weight combined with weight-related medical problems. 

    Last year, more than 5 million prescriptions for Ozempic, Mounjaro, Rybelsus or Wegovy were written for weight management, up from 230,000 in 2019, according to data and analytics firm Komodo Health.

    Obesity drugs could be a $54 billion market by 2030, up from $2.4 billion in 2022, Morgan Stanley said in a report last year. Reports of people who take GLP-1 drugs seeing improvements in addictive behaviors such as smoking and drinking have lately amplified interest in the medications.  

    For more, read: The dark side of the weight-loss-drug craze: eating disorders, medication shortages, dangerous knockoffs

    Drug companies, including Lilly and Pfizer Inc.
    PFE,
    -0.32%    ,
    are now working to develop treatments in the form of pills that could be more convenient alternatives to the injectables.

    See now: Weight-loss drugs in development aim to replace injections with pills

    Rite Aid’s overall numbers surprised on the upside, as its loss was narrower than expected and revenue beat the consensus estimate.

    For more, see: Rite Aid’s stock soars 7.5% after company surprises with earnings that are less bad than feared

    Eleanor Laise contributed.

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  • 8 value stocks that look like bargains for long-term investors

    8 value stocks that look like bargains for long-term investors

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    When is it a good time to buy stocks? Some investors would say the current negativity dominating the financial media means you are better off sitting on the sidelines. Others would say it is always a good time to buy stocks, provided you can get them for good prices.

    Count John Buckingham, editor of the Prudent Speculator, in the latter camp. He is a value investor with decades of experience. During an interview, he emphasized the importance of remaining disciplined through all market conditions. While he favors the value…

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  • Buffett is buying in Japan. This overseas value-stock fund is also making bets there. Is it a good way to diversify?

    Buffett is buying in Japan. This overseas value-stock fund is also making bets there. Is it a good way to diversify?

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    After a long period of underperformance when compared with the U.S. equity market, stocks in other countries are holding their own this year. One way to lower your overall risk with real diversification is to add exposure to an active international management style that doesn’t mirror a broad stock index.

    One example is the $2.7 billion Columbia Overseas Value Fund COSZX, which is rated four stars out of five by Morningstar in its Foreign Large Value category. Fred Copper and Daisuke Nomoto co-manage the fund and described…

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  • Lululemon, Intel, Carnival, Micron, Walgreens, and More Stocks to Watch This Week

    Lululemon, Intel, Carnival, Micron, Walgreens, and More Stocks to Watch This Week

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    Data on the U.S. consumer and housing market, plus several notable earnings reports, will be this week’s highlights. Barring any surprises, federal financial regulators’ Congressional testimony will be the main event on the banking front.

    On Wednesday, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin Gruenberg are scheduled to testify before the House Financial Services Committee. They’ll discuss the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and efforts to maintain confidence in the U.S. banking system.

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  • Alibaba shares rise in Hong Kong after Jack Ma cedes control of Ant Group

    Alibaba shares rise in Hong Kong after Jack Ma cedes control of Ant Group

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    Shares of Alibaba Group Holdings are higher following news that co-founder Jack Ma is ceding control of affiliate company Ant Group Co., potentially paving the way to revive plans for an initial public offering by the fintech giant.

    Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares
    9988,
    +7.78%
    advanced as much as 8.3% in early trade Monday, widening its year-to-date gains to 27%. Shares are outperforming a 1.7% gain in the city’s broader Hang Seng Index
    HSI,
    +1.65%
    and helping lift the city’s tech index by 3.0%. Alibaba is a shareholder of Ant.

    Ant, which owns China’s most widely used digital-payment platform, Alipay, has been overhauling its operations amid a government crackdown that began with Beijing calling off the company’s plans for an IPO in late 2020. The new change of control, announced by Ant over the weekend, moves the company a step closer to restructuring.

    Alibaba added Sunday that its equity interest in Ant remains unchanged.

    Shares of Alibaba were last up 7.6%. Shares of unit Alibaba Health Information Technology Ltd.
    241,
    +7.27%
    were 8.0% higher.

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