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

By Trey Thoelcke Published Jan 8, 9:35AM EST

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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

About the Author Trey Thoelcke →

Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.

Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community. He previously oversaw the 24/7 Climate Insights site, managing editorial operations and content strategy, and currently oversees and creates content for My Investing News.

Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.

Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, overseeing a long-running critique group and moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions. He lives with his family in an old house in the Midwest.