J.C. Penney Pleased With Holiday Sales: Wall Street Doesn't Agree

Retail

Published: January 8, 2014 9:35 am

Last Updated: January 8, 2014 9:36 am

On the surface, the overall reasonable holiday selling season would seem to have been a jump to the struggling retailer J.C. Penney Co. Ltd. (NYSE: JCP). While sales numbers have started to turn as the venerable retailer returned to discounting, Wednesday’s premarket trading on the stock seems to indicate just the opposite.

In a released statement, the company said it was “pleased” with its holiday numbers, but the retailer stopped short of actually putting out actual figures. With former CEO Myron Ullman returning to take the controls, the company has veered away from the hip retailing that former Apple executive Ron Johnson tried to implement. Instead J.C. Penney has returned to the typical department store advertising and discounting that has proved successful in the past.

The company did say that customers were responding well to the new initiatives and that the company was on track to meet its prior fourth-quarter guidance.

J.C. Penney shares were trading down about 9% at $7.45 shortly after the opening bell. That is in a 52-week range of $6.24 to $23.10

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