Reuters: Global Markets: J.C. Penney shares jump 10 percent on upgrade, short interest falls

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J.C. Penney shares jump 10 percent on upgrade, short interest falls Nov 1st 2013, 18:04 Tweet Share this Email Print Reprints Related Topics Hot Stocks » Asian Markets » Customers ride the escalator at a J.C. Penney store in New York August 14, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid Fri Nov 1, 2013 2:04pm EDT (Reuters) - J.C. Penney Co Inc (JCP.N) shares rose as much as 10.8 percent on Friday after Wall Street firm ITG Investment Research lifted its sales forecast for the department store chain, citing "improving sales trends" in five of the last seven weeks. Penney shares were up 8.7 percent at $8.15 in afternoon trading and rose as high as $8.31. They hit a 32-year low of $6.24 last week. ITG analyst John Tomlinson said in a research note that he now expects comparable sales to be down 4 percent for the third, rather than down 6 percent in his previous projection. Earlier this week, Penney Chief Executive Myron Ullman re-iterated his expectation, given two weeks earlier, that same-store sales would turn "positive" coming out of the third quarter and into the holiday season quarter, easing concerns about the store's prospects and sending shares higher. The company previously reported declines for August and September. Last year sales fell 25 percent after the company eliminated coupons and discounts in a failed bid to move upmarket. Business continued to fall in the first two quarters of the current fiscal year which began in February, raising concerns about liquidity and market loss share. Penney's shares have also risen as investors are becoming less bearish about the company. The percentage of Penney shares outstanding sold by investors betting on a decline, or short interest, fell to 25 percent as of October 15 from 35 percent two weeks earlier, according to Thomson Reuters data. (Reporting by Phil Wahba in New York; Editing by Richard Chang) Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

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