market folly

After sales plunged at J.C. Penney, Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital appeared on CNBC to talk about his investment.  He has stressed in the past that he's in this investment for many years as the company is a turnaround story.

Ackman originally purchased his stake around $25 and the stock now trades around $18 so he has a paper loss.  He argues that J.C. Penney is now "two companies" with the new startup concept: jcp (the stores within a store concept) and then the old J.C. Penney.

The Pershing Square man essentially argues that since the new jcp concept stores are generating a much higher return per square foot than the original concept, the growth there will be when old stores convert to the new jcp concept and then when the number of 'mini stores' within the store increases.

Embedded below is a video of Bill Ackman's appearance:



For more from this hedge fund manager, we've also posted Ackman's presentation at the Value Investing Congress.