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Tag: RAD

Rite-Aid Becomes Long Term Hold!

Rite-Aid (RAD) just announced earnings and, more importantly, discussed details of the merger deal.  First, the merger deal is off the table.  Walgreens will be paying $325 million for the termination agreement.  However, Walgreens (WAG) is going to purchase half of Rite-Aid stores for $5.2B.  Rite-Aid retains all of its west coast stores but will sell many stores in the other states.

For the long-term outlook, this is a great play on Rite-Aid.  There is a chance that another company possibly even Walgreens (WAG) in the future would be interested in Rite-Aid with the potential for the west coast stores and to own their pharmacy benefit manager.  Rite-aid is valued over $5 with this current outlook.  As long as they can start growing (which they have not in a long long while), there is the potential to move up to $9 which would be their price two years ago before all this merger and acquisition talk.

It is hard to predict where the stock price will be in the short-term.  However, if you wish to play this long-term, there is potential in Rite-Aid.  If another company wishes to acquire the remaining Rite-Aid, there is a good change you can double your money but don’t expect this to happen anytime soon.

Double Your Return in One Month with Rite-AID!

The Rite-Aid – Walgreens merger saga is coming to an end after two years of merger approval issues.  The end result will be $6.50-$7.00 of cash out per each Rite-AID (RAD) share.  I believe it will end up being at $6.50.  The stock is trading currently at $3.83 which means you will double your money on closing.  The only thing that can hold this up is if FTC blocks the merger.  With Amazon coming to the retail pharmaceutical business, I do not see an argument that FTC can make to block the merger.

The FTC would be doing a disservice to prevent this merger.  Amazon already has a hold of the retail market.  It wouldn’t be tough for them to change their structure to take over the pharmacy business as well.  Amazon can easily make a subscription model to customers that need antibiotics, cough syrups, medicines, etc. without going to your local CVS, Walgreens, Fred, Rite-AID, etc.  that would be cheaper and require less employees.

If you like to gamble, feel free to pick up some Rite-AID (RAD) shares.  The company is also coming out with earnings on Thursday so there is a lot of public news that will be out this week and next week.  The price was recently at $4 a share but has gone down to $3.81 this morning making this a good purchase.  If at worse case they do not merge, Rite-Aid will definitely go down to $2 per share which would still be a nice buy for a company that other competitors are interested in purchasing.

Disclosure: Long RAD stock and Long with RAD naked puts

Major Drop in Rite-AID!

There has been a huge sell-off in Rite-Aid (RAD).  A few days ago it was trading at over $4.50 but now it is trading close to $3.80 with more downside expected.  I would not recommend purchasing this stock anymore.  However, there is a great volatility which means there is also great option value in the stock.  Earnings is expected to be on 4/25/17.  This is a serious date that will move Rite-Aid violently up or down.

How to play?

I wouldn’t recommend purchasing the stock.  There’s too much variables in play that can cause this to move higher or lower that would end up making you sell.

Instead, I recommend looking at the August and October Strike price at the $4 or $3.50 to do a naked put.  I see this playing out in two ways.  In scenario one, you will get a nice premium when it sells at $6.50.  You will have collected it when you sold the naked put and now you will be happy that you are done with the stock.  In scenario two, the stock drops further and you end up owning the stock.  In this scenario, you will need to have enough reserves to make sure you can purchase the stock.  Scenario two will require patience and a long-term view that Rite-Aid will go up in the future.  A great earnings report will help prove scenario two as well.

I wouldn’t recommend you getting into this stock today.  I think it is better to give the weekend to plan your attack and due diligence.  Then you can execute your strategy on monday before earnings.  For those that are more conservative, wait until earnings comes out before making your play.  It might end up making more sense to play options after earnings comes out with the volatility playing to your advantage as well.

Disclosure: I do own RAD naked puts at $4 strike currently.

 

 

Now is the Right Time for Rite-AID

I’ve been reading about the merger between Walgreens (WAG) and Rite-AID (RAD) since last year.  I never was too interested in taking a position in this merger & acquisition candidate but with the recent sell-off the risk vs. reward is much better now.  I am also more confident in seeing a happy-ending to this scenario.

Originally, Walgreens was going to purchase Rite-Aid at a all-cash offer of $9 per share.  At that time, Rite-Aid was selling for over $6-7 which offered a nice 10% return to investors.  However, FTC didn’t like the deal and told Walgreens that they had to sell more stores to Fred or they won’t allow the purchase to take place.  Walgreens already said agreed to sell 800 stores to Fred.  FTC wants them to sell at least 1000 stores.  This also means that Walgreens will give less cash to Rite-Aid.  After hearing about this news, many investors holding Rite-Aid for over a year awaiting the merger and others holding the stock option gave up and sold their shares.

Now, the current price of Rite-Aid is around $4.50 (give or take a few cents) and Walgreens is planning to give $6.50 to $7.00 cash per share depending on the number of stores they need to divest to Fred.  There are a few different ways to take advantage of this opportunity.

First, Walgreens is actually in a better position.  They can get rid of more stores that they do not want.  Fred is happy to take over these stores since they want smaller stores that Walgreens would consider smaller towns that they are happy to give up and give less money to purchase Rite-Aid.

Second, Rite-Aid stock price is very undervalued now that even other acquirers should start throwing a deal out on Rite-Aid if Walgreens fails to acquire the company.  Rite-Aid does have a lot of debt but for the right investor they could use that debt as a write-off and still win at the current stock price.

Ok, let’s look at the returns.  At a price of $4.60 and a cash out of $6.50,  you are getting $1.90 per share giving you a return of 41%!  That’s great!!  However, if you want to get even more leverage and play a little safer as well, you can sell naked August 2018 Puts at a strike price $4 for around $0.65 so you would get a nice $650 for 10 contracts.  At worse case, the stock drops and you have to purchase at $4 but you already have $.65 so your stock basis would actually be $3.35.  I think this gives you plenty of wiggle room to wait until the stock price appreciations.

I think Walgreens or some other acquirer would be interested in this company.  I also think Rite-Aid can run on its own and figure a solution to get the price higher.  Either way, I feel the current price is a good one to get into Rite-Aid.

Disclosure: I do have naked puts in Rite-Aid currently and plan to purchase some stock for a long-term play.