Dive Brief:

• Rite Aid on Thursday posted first-quarter revenues of $8.2 billion, up 23.1% from $6.6 billion a year ago but missing analyst expectations for $8.26 billion reported by CNBC. The drugstore retailer reported adjusted quarterly earnings of 1 cent per share, falling short of Reuters' estimate of 5 cents per share.

• Rite Aid's retail pharmacy segment revenues were $6.7 billion, a 0.4% rise year over year thanks largely to increases in same-store sales. Revenues in the company’s pharmacy services segment, acquired in June last year, were $1.6 billion.

• Same-store sales rose 0.4% year over year, on a 0.1% increase in pharmacy sales and a 1.2% rise in front-end sales, Rite Aid said. Pharmacy sales, accounting for 68.9% of total drugstore sales, included an approximate 198 basis point negative impact from new generic introductions, the company said.

Dive Insight:

Rite Aid shares fell more than 1% after the earnings report’s release, according to CNBC. The retailer's stock rose earlier this month following a New York Post report indicating that its planned $17 billion acquisition by rival Walgreens will likely get a green light from the Federal Trade Commission, despite FTC concerns that the combined company would wield too much power in negotiations with drug makers. (Walgreens is expected to soon announce store closures in areas with too much overlap in another effort to assuage antitrust concerns, according to the Post.)

As Rite Aid noted in its press release Thursday, the boards of directors of both companies as well as Rite Aid shareholders have approved the merger, and said the deal is expected to close in the second half of this year.

Rite Aid Chairman and CEO John Standley said that the company wasn’t able to achieve expected efficiencies in buying medications during the first quarter, and that “drug cost reductions will continue to be short of our expectations in the near term” but would ease in the second half of the fiscal year.

“Our results for the first quarter reflect strong performance in our pharmacy services segment and our front-end business as well as good overall expense control,” Standley said in a statement. “Our challenge was pharmacy reimbursement rate pressure… As we work to meet this challenge, we remain focused on executing our highly successful sales initiatives like wellness+ with Plenti and the Wellness store program while also making strategic investments for growth and delivering a consistently outstanding customer experience.”

Rite Aid's overall store count totaled 4,560 at the end of Q1. The company additionally opened two RediClinics sites in the first quarter, bringing the total to 80.