The answer to that question seems to be no. The shares continue to tickle their 52-week low, trading at $13.66. The stock is down 30% this year, and with no improvement in sight.
What new money would need to hope for, and cannot, is that any executive of any caliber can get millions of consumers to return to a retailer that they have fled in droves. The first part of this flight was because J.C. Penney’s stores had become old and unattractive to shoppers. The second was because rent-a-CEO Ron Johnson completely changed how the chain priced its merchandise.
The double-digit drop in same-store sales has triggered a double-digit drop in revenue. J.C. Penney management has not developed the wisdom to shutter dozens of its underperforming stores, which outsiders find amazing. To lure shoppers who have departed for Macy’s (NYSE: M), Target (NYSE: TGT) and another dozen retailers, there is not a single thing J.C. Penney can do — unless it wants to give merchandise away. Rarely discussed is that J.C. Penney’s drop in online sales is sharper than the one in bricks-and-mortar. That data is buried in J.C. Penney’s press releases and SEC filings. In a world in which Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) continues to grow at a monstrous pace, Internet sales have become a barometer of a retailer’s future. In this department, J.C. Penney has none.
No new money for J.C. Penney, because no money is that stupid.
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