What happened
Shares of Rite Aid (RAD) fell as much as 10% in afternoon trading on Monday. Shares were down about 7% as of p.m. It was a slow news day for the company, but it's possible that a pair of SEC filings can help to explain the fall.
So what
Rite Aid held its annual meeting of stockholders on July 17 and published an 8-k with the SEC soon after to record the number of votes that were cast for and against the election of its board of directors. The results showed that all eight nominees to the board received enough votes to win their position.
That news might not be sitting well with some shareholders who were hoping for a board shakeup in lieu of the stock's 82% decline over the past year.
Image source: Getty Images.
Another SEC filing published today showed that CEO John Standley unloaded about 10,000 shares of stock on July 17 for $7.79 per share. That might not be sparking investor confidence, either.
It's hard to say whether these SEC filings are the real driver behind today's move, but it's likely they aren't helping the bull case for owning this stock.
Now what
Things keep going from bad to worse for Rite Aid's shareholders. The stock has fallen by more than 40% since Rite Aid performed its 1-for-20 reverse stock split in April, so that financial move did little to reignite investor confidence in this business.
The hard truth is that Rite Aid is operating in a tough industry that faces competitors including CVS Health, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Walmart, and even Amazon.com. Defending your turf against those giants would be tough from a position of strength, but its twice as hard when you are still producing bottom-line loses. That's why my plan remains to avoid this stock indefinitely.
