Despite its struggles in the third fiscal quarter Wednesday, J.C. Penney expected to have better numbers during the fourth fiscal quarter CNN Money reported Wednesday.
"The company is encouraged by the sales trends in the early weeks of November," J.C. Penney chief executive officer Mike Ullman told analysts in a conference call CNN Money reported. "The turnaround at J.C. Penney is taking hold. It's hard work with no quick fixes, but our customers tell us they love the changes. Margins are not improving as much as sales, but we are making progress." J.C. Penney saw shares decrease $1.81 after analysts predicted they would decrease.
Same-store sales for the company increased 0.9 percent last month marking the initial time sales showed growth dating back to December 2011.
The retailer raked in $2.78 billion last quarter. These are lower than last year's numbers, but meet figures predicted by analysts.
Wednesday's news is the company's latest development since investor Bill Ackman resigned from the J.C. Penney board in August.
According to Reuters, Ackman was involved in a conflict after he expressed his concern about where the company was going and how management was performing. Ackman then sold all of his shares in the company back to the retailer.
J.C. Penney filed the deal with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission along with statements from Pershing in August. Ackman resigned from J.C. Penney's board earlier this month after conflicts arose about the leadership of the retailer. Ackman was also not pleased with Ullman and wanted to replace him, but couldn't because the company was in support of him. Therefore Ackman stepped down.
Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management started to purchase the retailer in Oct. 2010 at a time when shares were $25 each.
Pershing then sold all of its 39 million shares to Citigroup, which had shares of $12.90 each giving Ackman about $500 million in losses.
