JC Penney Third Quarter Profits Fall 78%, Still Beats Expectations (JCP)

JC Penny announced that they have generated third quarter earnings of $27 million or 11 cents a share. This marks a 78% drop in profits from the same quarter a year ago of $123 million or 55 cents a share. JC Penny also experienced a drop in revenue of 2.3% as well as a drop in same store sales of 4.6%.

A large part of their earnings was due to their strategy of balancing top line performance with bottom line profitability according to CEO Myron Ullman III. However, JC Penney still sees their same store sales to go down 4% to 6% for the fourth quarter, leading the company to adjust their forecasts of 4th quarter EPS to a range between 70 cents to 85 cents a share.

In morning trading, shares of JC Penny rose 5.43% to $30.95 a share.