Rite Aid’s 1st-Quarter Operating Loss Shrinks

Rite Aid Corp. said its fiscal first-quarter operating loss narrowed to $88.7 million, or 23 cents a share, from $695.4 million, or $2.69, a year ago. Analysts expected a smaller loss of 19 cents, according to First Call/Thomson Financial.

Revenue rose 8% to $3.71 billion. Sales at stores open at least a year rose 10% and prescription-drug sales rose 12.7%, the company said.

The Camp Hill, Pa.-based firm has been struggling in the aftermath of accounting irregularities that led to the resignation of its top managers and forced Rite Aid to revise earnings downward by more than $1 billion for fiscal years 1998 and 1999.

Analysts have hailed recent cost-cutting by the company as the best way to increase the chain’s profitability and praised a refinancing deal completed last month that postpones payments on most of the company’s debt from next year until 2005.

Shares of Rite Aid rose 10 cents to $8.39 on the NYSE.