Jennifer Radman J.C. Penney JCP-N DON'T BUY Aug 29, 2014

J C Penney (JPC-N) or Coach (COH-N)? He would prefer Coach. The trouble with this company is that it makes no money. This is a department store that is competing with a lot of other department stores that are a way better at that.

Has put this into the category of “too tough to figure out”. Are they going up a lot, or are they going to zero? Had well published issues over the last several years. Still in a turnaround mode, but has $4.5 billion in debt, a lot more debt than equity. Lost money last year and analysts are forecasting they will make a little bit of money this year. Department store business is under a lot of pressure. Wouldn’t Short this because it has a very large Short interest, and if they do surprise and turn things around, the stock could go up a lot in a very short period of time.

SHORT. Not making money. Hemorrhaging cash. Most people going there were for the coupons and the discounts. Start covering when you get to $7.

The new CEO has done an astounding job of starting to stabilize this business. He has seen some comp revenue growth and same-store sales growth in the last couple of quarters. This is a very leveraged retailer, which is a dangerous place for investors to be. However, he thinks they will pull it off. He is a bond investor in this company.

This would be a great candidate for Shorting if he did Short stocks. Retail is a very tough segment. It is specific to the middle-income US consumer. Has a lot of debt on the balance sheet and is struggling with its operations. Slowly starting to turn itself around. There was some improvement on its last quarterly call, but it is still tough out there. Growth seems to elude this company. Until there is some top line growth and some improvement in margin, there are probably better places to be in retail.

He owns the bonds. The company is improving, same store sales are improving, but it is still losing money and will continue for a couple of years. This is for speculative investors only. He thinks they will survive, however.

(Market Call Minute) The balance sheet is falling away and they are forecasting losses so not the kind of things to invest in.

(A Top Pick Aug 18/14.) SHORT. Up 9.32%. He is no longer in this, but was actually looking at putting on a Short position today. A very weak retailer, and hard to see much growth in this company. Suffering with too much debt.

In addition to this being a late cycle stock, you also have to worry about them being hurt by Internet sales.