Shares of the US-based department store JC Penney Company (NYSE:JCP) dropped after the company released its first-quarter financial results for fiscal 2018, on Thursday.
JC Penney reported a decrease in net sales from $2.70 billion USD, during the first quarter of the previous year, to $2.58 billion or a decline of 4.3%.
The decline of net sales was attributed to the 141 stores that were closed in the second and third quarters of 2017.
The adjusted net loss for the quarter was $69 million, compared to an adjusted net income of $2 million during the first quarter of the previous fiscal year.
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The company showed a minimal increase in sales, which grew only by 0.2% during this quarter. According to the company, higher sales were associated with an increase in the selling of online and seasonal clearance.
According to JC Penney Chairman and CEO, Marvin R. Ellison has said that “apparel categories performed well during seasonable weather periods, and [the company’s] beauty and home refresh initiatives performed well above [their] total comp sales performance for the quarter.”
JC Penney predicts that comparable store sales are expected to increase from 0.0% to 2.0% for the rest of fiscal 2018.
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Several department stores in the US have been struggling financially recently due to an increase in alternative online retailers.
According to a recent article from CNN Money, JC Penney “is struggling to adapt to the changing retail landscape” and they cannot keep up with the success of other online retailers, such as Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).
After the financial results were released, shares of JC Penney declined by over 10%. As of 1:00 pm EDT share value had fallen to $2.73 or a decline of 11.07% and the company had reached a high of $2.89 and a low of $2.70, on Thursday.
Comparatively, the company closed at a share value of $3.07 on Wednesday.
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