About eight hours after J.C. Penney Co. said yesterday it was "pleased" with its turnaround, the retailer announced the sale of 84 million shares to raise cash.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is running the offering, the Plano, Texas-based department-store chain said in a statement yesterday. The underwriters will have a 30-day option to buy as many as an additional 12.6 million shares, which would push the total to 96.6 million shares. Based on yesterday's closing price, the value of the sale would be about $1 billion.

On Sept. 25, Charles Grom, an analyst for Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., wrote in a note that Chief Executive Officer Mike Ullman told him the retailer would end the year with sufficient liquidity. J.C. Penney said today it expects to end the fiscal year with about $1.3 billion in liquidity, excluding the offer proceeds. It had said on Aug. 20 that it expected year-end liquidity of more than $1.5 billion and that the forecast didn't assume it would need any additional outside financing.