J.C. Penney shares fell as much as 8% Friday after the discount department store lowered its fiscal year same-store sales guidance from growth of 3% to 4% to between 1% and 2%.
J.C. Penney blamed increased competition from off-price retailers and weak traffic for a 0.8% decrease in third quarter same-store sales;Consensus Metrix analysts on average expected a Q3 same-store sales increase of 2.7%. Net sales fell 1.4% to $2.86 billion in Q3, missing the Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S average analyst estimate of $2.95 billion.
