With J.C. Penney Struggling to Write Itself, Enter Soros (Another reason to boycott)

Legendary investor George Soros‘ Soros Fund Management has taken a 7.9% stake in the retailer, according to an SEC filing Thursday. The news sent J.C. Penney shares higher after-hours, up 6.6% to $16.25. At that price, Soros’ holdings are worth $283 million.

Soros, who famously “broke the Bank of England” in 1992 as part of a group that heavily shorted the British pound, owns just under 17.4 million shares of J.C. Penney, according to the filing. His stake puts him among the retailer’s five largest shareholders.

George Soros is the hagfish(*) of the financial markets.

Even his name should be George “Hagfish” Soros.

(*) aka “The most disgusting creature in the ocean.”

http://gawker.com/5854166/hagfish-the-most-disgusting-fish-in-the-sea

May very well be a corporate takeover.....between Soros and Ackman and Ventura...they could pull their stock and hurt Penneys really bad.

Take it easy guys..I work there and have watched this before Johnson came on board til now.

I can say our business has picked up at my store since Ullman took over....and the employees are in a far better frame of mind.

I work part-time, but what's amazing is how little the employees know about what's happening in the company....let alone have conversation with any about it.

At any rate this news of Soros is disturbing....he's a bottom feeder when companys etc. are going down.

Not so fast...Penneys isn’t done yet...’Marketwatch reports’ BEFORE soros got on board things were improving...

Soros Fund Management disclosed that it owns 17,386,361 Penney shares.

The purchase was ‘another’ vote of confidence for returning Chief Executive Mike Ullman after the struggling retailer ousted Ron Johnson on April 8.

Since then, Ullman’s support appears to have been growing steadily.

Gilford Securities’s Bernard Sosnick, a 30-year retail industry analyst, on Monday ‘upgraded his rating on the stock’ to buy from neutral, as he said ...”Penney is at an “inflection point, moving from danger to a more secure foundation.”

Craig Johnson of Customer Growth Partners, which advises retailers and institutional investors, has told MarketWatch his firm’s store checks showed .....”foot traffic to Penney had been up year-over-year for a full month since mid-March,( After Johnson was fired)... the best since Johnson initiated the turnaround that led to almost $1 billion in losses last year, with a small improvement in visits that resulted in purchases.

Analysts have also said Ullman appears to have a “logical plan” to fix Penney..... He’s also taken steps to reassure suppliers..... To bolster the company’s dwindling cash coffers,... Penney has tapped $850 million from its revolving credit line and on Thursday filed a shelf registration indicating it may sell a mixture of equity and debt securities to raise additional funding.

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