NIKE, Inc. $NKE Shares Sold by Hartford Investment Management Co.

Hartford Investment Management Co. trimmed its position in shares of NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) by 1.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 71,016 shares of the footwear maker’s stock after selling 1,047 shares during the period. Hartford Investment Management Co.’s holdings in NIKE were worth $5,045,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NKE. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in NIKE by 344.2% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 26,698,835 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $1,694,842,000 after purchasing an additional 20,688,013 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in NIKE by 24.9% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 45,383,916 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $2,880,971,000 after purchasing an additional 9,043,180 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC acquired a new position in NIKE during the first quarter worth $509,051,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in NIKE during the first quarter worth $502,285,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in NIKE by 4.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 113,151,080 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $7,182,831,000 after purchasing an additional 4,957,494 shares in the last quarter. 64.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Zacks Research upgraded NIKE from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised NIKE from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $76.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. Wall Street Zen raised NIKE from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 6th. HSBC raised NIKE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on NIKE from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $79.62.

NIKE Stock Performance

NYSE:NKE opened at $69.31 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $102.36 billion, a PE ratio of 32.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.24. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $74.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $67.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 2.21 and a quick ratio of 1.50. NIKE, Inc. has a 12 month low of $52.28 and a 12 month high of $90.26.

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, June 26th. The footwear maker reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $11.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.69 billion. NIKE had a return on equity of 23.33% and a net margin of 6.95%.NIKE’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.99 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that NIKE, Inc. will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NIKE Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 2nd. NIKE’s dividend payout ratio is 74.07%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Chairman Mark G. Parker sold 110,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.29, for a total value of $7,951,900.00. Following the transaction, the chairman owned 842,361 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,894,276.69. This represents a 11.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About NIKE

NIKE, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, markets, and sells athletic footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories, and services worldwide. The company provides athletic and casual footwear, apparel, and accessories under the Jumpman trademark; and casual sneakers, apparel, and accessories under the Converse, Chuck Taylor, All Star, One Star, Star Chevron, and Jack Purcell trademarks.