American Apparel Inc. shares plunged last week after the retailer announced that same-store sales decreased 6 percent in December.

The announcement means that American Apparel has now seen negative year-over-year same-store sales in three of the last four months. Prior to that, the company had been on a rebound, stringing together 27 consecutive months of same-store sales increases and seeing shares rise to their highest point in years.

The stock dropped 19 percent Jan. 9, the day of the announcement, to close at $1.14.

In a statement, Chairman-Chief Executive Dov Charney blamed a compressed holiday shopping season as well as underbuying by management of strong selling items due to distraction caused by implementing a new distribution center.

“Although December was disappointing, and we could face a challenging environment for the remainder of the winter, our management team is energized and we are excited about our prospects for spring and summer 2014 as well as for the calendar year as a whole,” he said.

In addition to slower sales, the company is facing continuing liquidity issues. In November, it reached an agreement with a lender on a $50 million credit facility to waive certain debt obligations and announced that it might not meet certain benchmarks. That caused Moody’s Investors Service to downgrade its rating of the company.

Not everyone is down on the company, however.

Analyst Ronnie Moas at Standpoint Research in Miami said that American Apparel still has good long-term prospects. He projects that it will still open more than 100 stores in the next five years, leading to increased revenue and an eventual return to profitability.

The company reported a loss of $1.5 million (-1 cent a share) on sales of $165 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30. That was a marked narrowing from the year-earlier period, when it posted a $19 million loss (-18 cents) on sales of $162 million.

“The market probably overreacted to the news,” Moas said. “It’s a stock that could double in the next year.”

Key to that will be getting a handle on the company’s debt, he added.

“That’s the wild card here. If they restructure their debt, that will buy them some time and they can grow their way out of this,” he said.

The company has been attempting a turnaround since 2010, when it announced that it could potentially file for bankruptcy after the economic downturn and a 2009 immigration raid that caused it to lose much of its workforce.