Dive Summary:

• On Tuesday, J.C. Penney announced a loss of $2.66 billion in revenue and a decrease of $1.17 per share.
• Despite the figures, J.C. Penney store sales actually saw improvement over the previous quarter, and stock prices for the company rose over 8%.
• "We were [also] seeing a sequential improvement throughout the quarter. Comp sales were improving throughout the quarter,” says Mary Ross Gilbert with Imperial Capital.

From the article:

Largest Penney shareholder Bill Ackman, whose firm Pershing Square Capital owns about an 18 percent stake, had handpicked Johnson from Apple's retail arm. Last week, Ackman resigned from the retailer's board, after two years of campaigning to transform the troubled department store operator.