“In order to encourage trial, and introduce more customers to the quality and style associated with brands such as Arizona and JCPenney Home, we are hosting a unique promotional event called Penney Days, ” J.C. Penney chief customer and marketing officer Mary Beth West told Today.
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The company’s quarterly same-store sales rose 4.1 per cent, in line with expectations of analysts polled by research firm Consensus Metrix.
Penney has been working to turn itself around, trying to breathe life into its sales after several years of posting losses. The department store chain, based in Plano, Texas, said Friday its fourth-quarter loss widened from a year ago, dragged down by restructuring and pension costs. The company also offered an upbeat sales outlook.
CEO Marvin Ellison said the company’s three-legged plan to focus on Penney’s private brands, improve online performance and gain more of each customer’s spending is working.
J.C. Penney still has a long way to go before it can claim a full recovery.
Revenue rose almost 3 percent to $3.99 billion, and topped the $3.97 billion estimate from FactSet. “We are also pleased that we delivered strong fourth quarter results while effectively managing our inventory, which finished the year up 2.6 percent”.
J C Penney Company Inc(JCP) last announced its earnings results on Nov 13, 2015 for Fiscal Year 2015 and Q3.
The department store operator said it was expecting an increase of between 3% and 4% in comparable sales during 2016 along with positive adjusted earnings. The stock that jumped as much as 8.31% ahead of earnings release during Thursday’s trade, rocketed higher again in extended hours by rising 9.11% to $9.10 apiece. J.C. Penney appears headed down a path of meeting an ambitious goal set out in 2014 of reaching $1.2 billion in EBITDA by 2017.
The retailer also sees same-store sales rising between 3% and 4% in the current year, which would be down from the 4.5% growth reported for the recently completed year.
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Excluding items, the company earned 39 cents per share in the quarter ended January 30, versus 4 cents in the year-ago period, beating the average analyst estimate of 23 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Further, the company’s selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses contracted 6.8% to $962 million.
