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JC Penney Shares Explode
Reuters/Natalie Behring The department store had a good holiday season. Shares of JC Penney are exploding in after-hours trade after the retailer reported holiday same-store sales that jumped 3.7% from the same period last year.
In after-hours trade, shares were up as much as 15%, to $7.24. On Tuesday, the stock closed at $6.24.
JC Penney defined the holiday-shopping period as the combined nine weeks in November and December, and the company also said it now expects fourth-quarter same-store sales to come in at the upper end of the 2-4% guidance range the company issued.
It's a marked change from a year ago, when the company declined to provide any data on its holiday sales performance, saying merely that it was "pleased" with how it did.
A report from Reuters after Christmas said that for the period between Black Friday and Christmas, sales rose 5.5% over last year, in line with expectations.
After a disastrous 2013, the value of JC Penney shares declined further in 2014, losing about 30% during the year.
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