JCP - J.C. Penny

[mevsemt]

Does anyone have any thoughts on JCP?  On a numbers basis alone it seems reasonably priced, but the thing that attracted me was 1) common shareholders are directly aligned with management/BOD and 2) common shareholders are investing alongside Ackman/Roth/Johnson.  Taken together, this seems like a pretty unique opportunity.  BTW I recently bought shares (http://mevsemt.blogspot.com/2011/09/more-retail-great.html).

[beerbaron]

It's a bet on the turnaroud with the CEO being in front. The question is how much do you trust the CEO... I seem to remember a start CEO at Sears that seems to struggle.

 

BeerBaron

[mevsemt]

I agree that the CEO is definitely part of the story, but I think an equally significant part of the story is Ackman's capital allocating skills and Roth's real estate experience.  BTW I'm also long Sears...

 

Maybe I need to join a support group, "Hi, I'm MEvsEMT, and I invest in crappy mall based retailers."  After all, step 1 is admitting you have a problem...  ;)

[DCG]

I started looking at it JCP recently with Ron Johnson taking over as CEO, as I was very impressed with him at Apple and have confidence in him.

 

I just don't know what Johnson can/will do to try to transform the company, and what that would cost (store remodels, marketing etc). I generally don't like to invest in retailers that don't sell their own products, but am curious to see what Johnson does with the company.