LOS ANGELES: J.C. Penney Corporation shares surged as much as 22 per cent after sales growth picked up over the holidays, raising optimism that the department store chain is back on the comeback trail.
J.C. Penney’s same store sales rose 3.7 per cent during the 9 week holiday season. The Plano, Texas based company also expects growth this quarter to be at the upper end of a predicted range of 2 per cent to 4 per cent.
Mary Ross Gilbert, an analyst at Imperial Capital in Los Angeles said US consumers have been looking for bargains and that plays to the company’s strength.
The shares climbed as high as $7.99 in New York, marking the biggest intraday gain since last February. The stock had been slumping recent months, hurt by concern that its turnaround was faltering. It was down 41 per cent since reaching a 2014 closing high on August 27.
