Zacks Research Upgrades NIKE (NYSE:NKE) to Hold

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) was upgraded by investment analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

NKE has been the subject of a number of other reports. Argus raised NIKE to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Weiss Ratings upgraded NIKE from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on NIKE from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Stifel Nicolaus set a $45.00 price objective on NIKE and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, Berenberg Bank set a $49.00 price objective on shares of NIKE and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.53.

NIKE Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:NKE opened at $40.25 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $42.55 and its 200 day moving average is $47.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.96. The company has a market capitalization of $59.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.11. NIKE has a fifty-two week low of $38.86 and a fifty-two week high of $80.17.

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 30th. The footwear maker reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $10.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.85 billion. NIKE had a net margin of 6.70% and a return on equity of 16.54%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.14 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that NIKE will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NIKE news, COO Venkatesh Alagirisamy sold 890 shares of NIKE stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.60, for a total transaction of $37,024.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 74,820 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,112,512. The trade was a 1.18% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Philip Mccartney sold 17,398 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.18, for a total value of $803,439.64. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 53,133 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,453,681.94. This represents a 24.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold 26,142 shares of company stock worth $1,169,380 in the last 90 days. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of NIKE

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NKE. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its holdings in NIKE by 49,010.4% in the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 48,054,542 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $3,061,555,000 after purchasing an additional 47,956,692 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of NIKE in the fourth quarter worth $829,956,000. Flossbach Von Storch SE bought a new position in shares of NIKE in the second quarter worth $488,714,000. Harris Associates L P purchased a new stake in shares of NIKE in the second quarter worth $621,525,000. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of NIKE by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 49,069,951 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $3,126,246,000 after buying an additional 6,830,938 shares in the last quarter. 64.25% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NIKE Company Profile

Nike, Inc (NYSE: NKE) is a global designer, marketer and distributor of athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories. Founded in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman and renamed Nike in 1971, the company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon. Nike develops and commercializes products across performance and lifestyle categories for sports including running, basketball, soccer and training, and is known for signature technologies and design-driven product lines.

The company markets products under several primary brands, including Nike, Jordan and Converse, and sells through a combination of wholesale relationships, branded retail stores and direct-to-consumer channels such as company-operated stores and digital platforms (e.g., Nike.com and mobile apps).