J.C. Penney is no longer at risk of having its stock d12/3/19elisted.
The Plano-based retailer said it received notice from the New York Stock Exchange on Monday notifying it that it had regained compliance. It originally was alerted its shares were at risk in early August.
Penney's minimum average stock price in the last 30 trading days gave it an average above the $1 minimum. Penney shares also had to close above $1 on the last trading day of the month under the NYSE rules. It closed at $1.13 on Nov. 29.
The stock price closed at $1.10, down 3 cents on Monday.
With a new management team put together the last year by CEO Jill Soltau, Penney showed it can improve its margins, or profitability, with its third quarter results released last month, but sales continued to decline.
Comparable store sales fell 9.3% in the fall quarter. Analyst Oliver Chen of Cowen Equity Research said in a report, while Penney posted better apparel sales and raised its outlook for the year, the retailer needs "greater turnaround urgency given (its) debt profile."
This year, Penney paid off $150 million of its long-term debt to $4 billion. Its interest expense is about $73million a quarter. Its next big payment of $105 million is due next year. Then it has more time. Penney's $2.06 billion term loan needs to be refinanced in 2023 or earlier.
Penney ended the third quarter with $1.7 billion in liquidity. Soltau and chief financial office Bill Wafford visited Wall Street in July to talk with debt holders.
