J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) is often mentioned in the same breath as Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD). On the surface, there are similarities — both retailers flourished in past decades, but the rise of e-tailers and sluggish mall traffic gutted their businesses.
As a result, both stocks plummeted by more than 90% over the past decade and now trade at very low valuations. J.C. Penney trades at just 0.1 times sales, and Sears has a price-to-sales ratio of 0.05 — compared with the industry average of 0.3 for department stores.