J.C.Penney Company, Inc. (JCP-NYSE) is proving that the retail environment isn’t all bad in all areas.  The company posted $1.04 EPS vs. $1.03 estimates, although revenues were $4.35 billion vs. $4.39 billion estimates.

Its same store sales were up 2.2% and gross margin improved 0.7% to 41.5%.  It’s putting next quarter guidance at $0.80 EPS (before $0.03 for debt retirement) versus estimates of $0.79; and it has raised fiscal guidance by about 1% from $5.44 EPS to a new number of $5.49.

The company has been doing well with its new lingere sales, but it’s new Ralph Lauren concepts are seeming to help as well.  Shares are up 3% to $78.00 in early trading.  Obviously Joe Q. Public isn’t tapped out everywhere.

This is why Jim Cramer named Mike Ullman as one of his Top 9 Retail CEO’s earlier, and it’s probably a safe bet that Cramer will be out saying great things about JC Penney today.  The ‘Penney’ may be spelled differently, but since this stock is up 4-fold in the last five years maybe the company should change their name to JC Dollars.

Jon C. Ogg
May 17, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.