It's a telling sign that shares of discount retailing giant J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) didn't move much today despite the company's announcement of a restructuring program aimed at pulling the sprawling company out of a share price slide that has the company's stock trading at its lowest levels in a decade.

Today's press release discussed plans -- carrying a price tag of $530 million that will show up in both the fourth quarter (ended January 29) and the first quarter of this year -- to close underperforming department and drugstores as well as streamlining various business functions to curtail costs. The company believes it could save as much as $300 million annually after a revision of procurement methods is figured in.

The cornerstone of the plan is the closing of 45 department stores and 290 Eckerd drugstores that have disappointed. "Improving the profitability of our core department store and drugstore businesses is our top priority," Chairman and CEO James Oesterreicher said in a statement, "and has caused us to take a hard look at department stores and drugstores that are underperforming and lack future strategic fit."

While that's admirable sentiment, investors must nevertheless ask themselves whether this restructuring positions J.C. Penney as a compelling investment. Will the moves make enough of a difference to recharge the company's stock in a competitive environment that has been, frankly, dominated by Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT)? (For a recent story on those two, click here.)

It doesn't look so at the moment: $300 million in cost savings wouldn't register more than a blip on the company's massive operating budget and investors would surely have appreciated a more incisive review of the company's department stores with another 1,100 still chugging away. As for Eckerd, once an IPO awaited by investors looking to get hold of another powerful pharmacy chain, J.C. Penney today delayed plans for a tracking stock for a second time. That's not an encouraging sign, and neither is store contraction leading up to an offering.

"Clearly, additional work must be done," Oesterreicher reportedly said on a conference call today. It will be a tall task. Initial reaction to Sears' (NYSE: S) revitalization efforts announced in September have, at least by stockholders, not been warmly received and have highlighted the notion that in a business environment dominated by powerful, smoothly run competition there is a difference between saying "turnaround" and doing it.

With that in mind, investors should keep in mind that further downside is almost always possible and, in considering supertanker turnaround stories like J.C. Penney, wait for signs of a more significant catalyst before getting behind the company in times of trouble.

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