J.P. Morgan Says Change Is Underway For Office Depot

According to J.P. Morgan, for Office Depot (NYSE: ODP), following the management meeting, change is underway.

J.P. Morgan reported that, following its presentation to Office Depot's Global Officer Committee, it held meetings with Interim CEO and Board Member Neil Austrian, CFO Mike Newman, and division heads Kevin Peters and Steve Schmidt. “We were invited by ODP to address the company's Global Officer Committee. We discussed negative investor perceptions, the issues the company has been struggling with, and highlighted the secular challenges at hand. We believe such a presentation would not have happened under prior management and note this as evidence that the culture is starting to shift to greater openness and accountability. While the work ahead to transform the culture and address the secular challenges is significant, we believe the emerging cultural shift is quite noteworthy. The biggest question now is whether the right CEO gets hired and whether he/she has the capability to work with existing management to capitalize on growing internal momentum. Indeed, during our visit we were reminded of our initial meetings with HD following the departure of Bob Nardelli/installation of Frank Blake where optimism was emerging and a positive transformation was beginning in the organization.”

Office Depot closed yesterday at $5.41.