J. C. Penney Q1 Loss Narrows

(RTTNews) - J. C. Penney Company, Inc. (JCP) reported a net loss for the first quarter of $167 million or $0.55 per share, compared to a net loss of $352 million or $1.15 per share for the year-ago quarter.

Net sales for the first quarter rose 2% to $2.86 billion from $2.80 billion a year earlier. Same store sales increased 3.4 % for the first quarter.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report a loss of $0.77 per share on revenue of $2.87 billion for the first quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Looking forward, the company now expects full year 2015 same-store sales to increase 4% to 5%, compared to its prior expectations of 3% to 5% growth. Gross margin for the full year is expected to improve 100 to 150 basis points up from its earlier expectations of 50 to 100 basis points improvement.