J.C. Penney Profit Falls 54% in 3Q

New York City J.C. Penney Inc. on Friday said quarterly profit fell nearly 53%, and said it expects total fourth-quarter sales to fall 7% to 9%.

J.C. Penney also reported that its net income fell to $124 million for its fiscal third quarter, ended Nov. 1, from $261 million a year earlier. Sales fell 8.7% to $4.32 billion, while same-store sales fell 10.1% in the quarter.

Last week, J.C. Penney announced that October same-store sales fell 13%.

The company said quarterly inventory was 9% below last year's levels on a comparable store basis and gross margin fell to 38.5% of sales, compared with 39.7% in last year's quarter, as softer sales forced J.C. Penney to cut prices to clear out merchandise.

Women's and children's apparel and family shoes sold best in the quarter, while home and fine jewelry continued to be weak.

Internet sales fell 0.3%, compared with an 11.8% increase in last year's quarter.

J.C. Penney said it had cash and short-term investments of $1.6 billion and long-term debt of $3.5 billion as of Nov. 1.