J C Penney Company Inc (NYSE:JCP) stock was flying high on Friday following the release of a surprising earnings beat for the third quarter of 2107.
During the third quarter of the year, J C Penney Company Inc reported losses per share of 33 cents. This is worse off than its losses per share of 21 cents from the same time last year. However, it was a boon for JCP stock by beating out Wall Street’s losses per share estimate of 43 cents for the quarter.
JCP stock also got a boost today from revenue of $2.81 billion in the third quarter of 2017. This is down roughly 2% from its revenue of $2.86 billion reported in the third quarter of 2016. Despite this decline, it still came in above analysts’ revenue estimate of $2.74 billion for the third quarter of the year.
J C Penney Company Inc also notes that its comparable sales for the third quarter of 2017 were up by 1.7%. It says that this means its comparable sales for the last two years are now up by 0.9%.
The company says that some of its actions in the third quarter hurt its earnings. It points toward its efforts to clear out slow-moving inventory as the main culprit of this. While this resulted in negative short-term results, JCP believes it will allow it to better perform in the fourth quarter.
J C Penney Company Inc says that it is expecting earnings per share for the full year of 2017 to range from 2 cents to 8 cents. Wall Street is expecting the retail company to report earnings per share of 6 cents during the year.
JCP stock was up 13% as of Friday morning, but is down 62% year-to-date.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
