JC Penney Q3 Earnings Meets Estimates

Thomas Weisel Partners maintains its “market weight” rating for JC Penney Company Inc (NYSE: JCP). The target price is set to $38.

JCP posted its Q3 EPS at $0.11, in-line with the estimates and the guidance, despite real estate impairment. JCP’s total sales fell 3.2% and comparable store sales dropped 4.6%. While JCP’s gross margins expanded 210bp to 40.6%, it failed to meet the estimates, Thomas Weisel said.

JC Penney Company has guided its EPS for Q4 at $0.70-$0.85 on the basis of a 3%-5% decline in total comps of (4)%-(6)%. The earnings projection fell short of Thomas Weisel’s estimates of $0.93.