Dive Brief:

• J.C. Penney Tuesday said it saw a holiday same-store sales increase of 3.7%. The report made Wall Street happy, and shares rose as much as 18% on the news. 

• The retailer also predicted Q4 same-store sales will see close to a 4% increase, the top end of its earlier estimated 2% to 4% increase.

• The news was in stark contrast to a year ago, when many predicted the discount department store’s demise after a set of changes brought on by former CEO Ron Johnson sent sales tanking.

Dive Insight:

What a difference a year makes. J.C. Penney has upended many analyst and observer predictions that it couldn’t recover from the series of changes brought on by Ron Johnson. Instead, the retailer got what it needed from the holidays and much of last year. This report comes just in time for CEO Mike Ullman to hand the reigns to Marvin Ellison, the former Home Depot chief who will soon take over.