J.C. Penney, Up 5%, Denies Ron Johnson Is Leaving

Talk about being unpopular.

Shares of J.C. Penney (JCP) are up close to 5% today and leading the Standard & Poor’s 500 index. Good news, you’d think, but the rise is being attributed to rumors that CEO Ron Johnson — widely credited/blamed with driving the retailer into a ditch — was leaving the company.

But it seems such talk has been overblown:

�Ron Johnson is not quitting or resigning from J.C. Penney and he has no plans to do so,� Joey Thomas, a spokesman for the Plano, Texas-based company, said today in an e-mail. �The rumors are false.�

Burt Flickinger, managing director at Strategic Resource Group, was on Bloomberg TV today, and said that he thinks the retailer is heading for bankruptcy:

I’m 19 for 19 predicting retail bankruptcies…my forecast says J.C. Penney’s not going to make it with the current team in place…there’s not enough to time to turn it around before the holidays, when vendors may insist on letters of credit to draw down working capital — and that’s usually when the company contracts and could collapse.

Flickinger suggested bringing in Bob Mettler, who’s turned around retailers in the past, among other names. Asked if Johnson was the wrong hire for Penney, Flickinger said

Steve Jobs was smart enough to put Mickey Drexler on his board in 1999 to develop the Apple stores; Ron Johnson is not Mickey Drexler.