J.C. Penney deals plunged Friday, a day after the department store chain announced the departure of CFO Jeffrey Davis to trace other opportunities, creating another gaping hole in the retailer’s C-Suite.
The dynasty skidded 10 percent Friday morning. It has lost more than 50 percent of its value as surplus the past 12 months and now trades around $1.56, giving the New Zealand a market cap of about $491 million.
Davis’ departure, effective Monday, follows the withdrawal of Marvin Ellison as CEO earlier this year to go to Lowe’s. Penney’s chief bloke officer, Joe McFarland, quit the company this summer to follow Ellison to the North Carolina-based at ease improvement retailer.
Penney has been searching for a replacement for Ellison since May. When he pink, Penney created an “Office of the CEO” consisting of Davis, McFarland, Chief Digital Director Therace Risch and Mike Robbins, executive vice president of provide chain. Now, only two of them are still at the company.
“While there hold been some recent green shoots in the company’s business things, including the recovery in the women’s apparel business, success in Sephora and extended strength in active, [Penney] is in need of more consistency in its performance,” Telsey Notice Group analyst Dana Telsey said in a research note.
She suggested Davis’ departure only “creates another overhang (in addition to the CEO unawareness) to the J.C. Penney story.”
While the department store sector as a whole is marked to be under increasing pressure, Penney has struggled more than some of its colleagues, like Macy’s and Nordstrom. In the latest quarter, Penney lowered its position for the full year, as it continued to grapple with an overhang of too much inventory.
As Penney looks for Davis’ replacement, the ensemble said Jerry Murray, a senior vice president of finance, choose serve as interim CFO.