J.C. Penney beat predictions and reported strong results for the past fourth fiscal quarter the company said in a press release Wednesday.
"J.C. Penney achieved what it set out to do on a number of important fronts in 2013. We stabilized our business, both financially and operationally, and restored our process disciplines, promotions, inventory levels and focus on the customer, Mike Ullman CEO at J.C. Penney said in a statement. "
"As a result, we generated positive comparable store sales in the fourth quarter and ended the year with more than $2 billion in total available liquidity. These important accomplishments reflect the progress we have made in our turnaround, which remains on course heading into 2014," Ullman said in the statement.
Sales at its stores increased two percent compared to 2013's numbers the press release reported. The holiday season also helped improve numbers 3.1 percent.
More consumers flocked to J.C. Penney's website rising sales 26.3 percent minus one week the press release reported.
J.C. Penney also earned $205 million for its selling, general, and administrative expenses account. The retailer was able to cache $392 million in the past 12 months.
nvestor Bill Ackman resigned from the J.C. Penney board in August Forbes reported. According to CNN Money, Ackman was involved in a conflict after he expressed his concern about where the company was going and how management was performing CNN Money reported. Ackman then sold all of his shares in the company back to the retailer CNN Money reported.
J.C. Penney filed the deal with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission along with statements from Pershing in August Reuters reported. Ackman resigned from J.C. Penney's board earlier after conflicts arose about the leadership of the retailer Reuters reported. Ackman was also not pleased with Ullman and wanted to replace him, but couldn't because the company was in support of him Reuters reported. Therefore Ackman stepped down, and Ullman took over as CEO Reuters reported.
Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management started to purchase the retailer in Oct. 2010 at a time when shares were $25 each CNN Money reported.
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 CNN Money reported.
