Gilford Securities Maintains Hold on JC Penney Following CEO Comments

Gilford Securities has published a research report on JC Penney

that commented on CEO Ron Johnson's bullish vision. In the report, Gilford Securities wrote, "Ron Johnson paints an enticing picture of a “new” Penney transforming itself to become America's Favorite Store. As he spoke last week in Dallas the stock price rose, until reality struck—when he said sales headed lower in September and to expect that 2H/12 would be similar to that of 1H/12—which was horrible. What to expect for 2H/12 was left to the imagination, based on guessing about what might happen to Penney's sales during the holiday season." Gilford Securities maintained its Hold rating on JC Penney, which is currently trading up 0.93 percent from Monday's $24.65 closing price.