NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Rite Aid were gaining 1.1% to $8.66 in pre-market trading Thursday after the drug store operator reported same store sales results for the month of March. Rite Aid said that same store sales grew 4.3% for the month of March compared to the year-ago month. Front-end same store sales increased 2.5% year over year for the month. The company said that pharmacy same store sales increased 5.1% year over year, which included a negative impact of about 167 basis points due to the introduction of new generic drugs. Prescription count at comparable stores grew 2.5% from the year-ago month. Drugstore sales increased 4.1% to $2.026 billion for the month, compared to $1.947 billion in March 2014. Prescription sales accounted for 69.9% of drugstore sales, and third party subscriptions sales accounted for 97.7% of pharmacy sales. TheStreet Ratings team rates RITE AID CORP as a Hold with a ratings score of C. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate RITE AID CORP (RAD) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed -- some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, solid stock price performance and growth in earnings per share. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including weak operating cash flow and poor profit margins." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: RAD's revenue growth has slightly outpaced the industry average of 0.2%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 5.3%. This growth in revenue appears to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, improving the earnings per share. Powered by its strong earnings growth of 150.00% and other important driving factors, this stock has surged by 26.15% over the past year, outperforming the rise in the S&P 500 Index during the same period. Regarding the stock's future course, our hold rating indicates that we do not recommend additional investment in this stock despite its gains in the past year. The gross profit margin for RITE AID CORP is currently lower than what is desirable, coming in at 30.30%. Regardless of RAD's low profit margin, it has managed to increase from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 1.56% trails the industry average. Net operating cash flow has significantly decreased to $111.73 million or 54.21% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, when comparing to the industry average, the firm's growth rate is much lower. You can view the full analysis from the report here: RAD Ratings Report Must Read: Warren Buffett's Top 25 Stocks for 2015
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