J.C. Penney---Carmen (fast)
4% today after the company reported rising sales. topping the consensus estimate for fourth-quarter profit on continuing operations, j.c. penney on a net basis had a loss. carmen roberts joins us to tell us why. carmen?
>> i certainly will, mike. j.c. penney’s department stored and catalog sales rose the most in seven years. that helped give the company earnings on a continuing operation basis of 83 cents a share, three cents more than the consensus estimate. the chief executive pates a much better consumer environment this year. and the first half should be especially strong. the reason―higher tax refunds and that low interest rate environment he says will benefit the moderate customer, which will benefit j.c. penney. he says the company is on track to meet its operating profit goal of 6% to 8% of sales in 2005. he’s projecting profit from continuing operations for the current quarter to be nine to 12 cents a share compared to five cents a year ago. that, however, is without profit from eckerd. j.c. penney is actively negotiating to sell the struggling drugstore chain. eckerd’s profit fell for the third straight quarter. david rip who manages assets of a.s.b. capital management says it appears the company is committed to making the sale happen. the company also took a write-down on its loss for the sale of its mexican store operations. the net loss was $3.42 a share comparing with a profit of 68 cents a year earlier. as more shoppers turn to the internet for holiday shopping, j.c. penney saw its internet sales rise 50%. together with sales from department stores and catalog, sales rose about 6% to more than $6 billion and same-store sales rose 3.2%, something that david rit calls pretty robust.
>> thank you, carmen roberts. pensions funds from new york, massachusetts, connecticut, and new jersey are the latest to join california’s state retirement plans. it’s withholding votes for michael eisner. california’s public employees and teachers retirement systems won’t support re-election for eisner. pension fund advisor glass lewis recommended investors withhold their votes too.
>> i think it’s a combination of financial performance, lagging the market in general, as well as a real question about leadership and kenches and whether michael is getting the job done for investors or not.
>> disney says the report is one-sided and riddled with serious factual errors. eisner and a disney director visited representatives of ohio’s pension fund today to answer questions about the corporate governance. a north korean official says there’s been no breakthrough in the six-nation talks on the nuclear program. mark crumpton joins us with more.
