JCPenney December Report Omits Sales Data

JCPenney Co. Inc. (Plano, Texas) mysteriously omitted sales data from its most recent monthly report on holiday results.

All it said was it was pleased with its holiday performance and that same-store sales and gross margin would improve in the quarter ending in January. The results showed “continued progress” in the turnaround, the release said.

.Analysts and investors took this as a sign of nothing good. “What companies don’t say can be far more important than what they do say,” Rick Snyder, an analyst for Maxim Group LLC, told Bloomberg News. “This press release is remarkable for being unremarkable.”

The retailer had been reporting monthly same-store sales since September, to show investors that it was rebounding from its much-publicized failures under former ceo Ron Johnson.

But after jumps of 0.9 percent in October and 10 percent in November, news about December comps was missing, creating fears that the November gain was the peak and sales would now decelerate.

But another analyst, Michael Binetti of UBS AG, told Bloomberg that November was an easy comparison  because it was measured against the month in 2012 when Hurricane Sandy struck.

Bloomberg said the company declined to comment on why the press release lacked monthly sales results.