J. C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE: JCP) is getting hit pretty hard this morning. While current investors will not appreciate the drop, this is actually great news for those investors who wanted…
Clothes maker Liz Claiborne Inc. (NYSE: LIZ) sold its namesake brand, among other things, to J.C. Penney Co. (NYSE: JCP) last October for about $328 million. Other brands were sold to Kohl’s…
Paul Ausick Chico’s FAS (NYSE: CHS) said its growth story remains intact, even though consumer spending is expected to remain soft. Additionally, despite falling margins at its flagship stores and rising inventories, the women’s…
The sovereign debt problem in Europe gets more complex by the hour. The European Central Bank said it may intervene to buy paper issued by nations that are economically weak. This should…
Retailers are reporting November sales this morning and the results are decidely mixed. The best report we’ve seen so far this morning is from Limited Brands, Inc. (NYSE: LTD) and the worst…
An unexpected gain in October retail sales has boosted prospects for a better-than-forecast holiday retail sales season. Some of the sales gains will come from lower pricing, which can’t always be counted…
The retail jamboree known as Black Friday seems to start earlier every year. The door-buster sales used to begin in the wee hours of Friday morning, but several retailers have already announced…
October is not usually a strong month for retailers because shoppers take a break between the back-to-school buying and the coming holiday season. In October 2010, same-store retail sales rose just 1.6%…
A couple of weeks ago we looked at implied share price gains at several retailers, and today we’ll take a more focused look at mall anchor stores. Three retailers from our previous…
The retail sales growth outlook for the coming holiday season has been cut to around 3%, only half the growth retailers saw in the 2010 holiday season. Of course, last year followed…
Each year, hundreds of thousands of temporary workers are hired by retailers to handle the demands of the holiday season. The number of seasonal workers added is considered a bellwether for the…
U.S. retailers hired more than 627,000 seasonal workers during the October-December 2010 holiday season, a welcome boost from the mere 231,000 seasonal workers put on in 2008. Prospects for 2011 seasonal hiring…
Retail sales in August put up solid gains that were slowed somewhat by the effects of Hurricane Irene along the eastern seaboard. Among the stores reporting sales numbers today are Costco Wholesale…
Online sales success has become critical to major retailers. All evidence shows that e-commerce continues to grow at double-digit annual rates while in-store sales in the U.S. have barely grown at all…
Although stock buybacks have never been among our most preferred methods of returning capital to investors, stock repurchase plans can indicate to investors that a company’s management believes the ship is not…
