J.C. Penney October Sales Off 4.5% (JCP)

11/5/2009 - J.C. Penney Co. (NYSE:JCP) said on Thursday that sales at stores open at least a year fell 4.5% in October. The company had expected a decline of 5% to 8% and the consensus estimates was for a decline of 2.3%. Total sales for the four-week period dropped 3.5% to $1.31 billion. J.C. Penney said that sales were better than expected in the first half of the month but slowed down in the third week and dropped below projections in the fourth week. Halloween falling on a Saturday hurt the results and the company lost about 2.5% off its results because of it. The company now expects Q3 profit of 10 cents to 11 cents per share, up from 3 cents to 10 cents, vs. the consensus estimates of 11 cents per share.

Write to Chip Brian at cbrian@tradethetrend.com

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