It’s pretty rare for a big box retailer to report good news these days, but J.C. Penney has reason to celebrate.
The company says it has received notice from the New York Stock Exchange that its shares are no longer at risk of being delisted after a notification it had fallen out of compliance in August.
Shares on the NYSE are required to trade at $1 or more, which JC Penney had fallen under at the time. They’ve since rebounded and closed at $1.13 on Nov. 29, the last trading day of the month, which allowed the company to comply with regulations.
That’s hardly a price many companies would brag about, but it’s more than double the 52-week low and shares have been on a fairly steady upward trajectory since late September.
The Plano, Texas-based company is taking several steps to reinvent itself, from reviving its old “Penney’s” logo to opening a store that will include what it’s calling a “retail lab,” that includes a fitness studio, a selfie studio (the 21st century take on Penney’s portrait services), a video game lounge, and a barber shop.
That store will be used to decide which new initiatives resonate with customers before rolling them out to the chain’s 850 stores.
Analysts are still bearish on the chain, despite the fact that the stock is no longer in immediate danger of being delisted, noting its large number of locations, the ongoing decline in mall foot traffic and continued weakness on the e-commerce front.
Penney officials, though, have said the store is not preparing a bankruptcy filing.
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