NIKE (NYSE:NKE) Upgraded at Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of NIKE (NYSE:NKE) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Monday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $115.00 target price on the footwear maker’s stock, up from their previous target price of $75.00.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of NIKE from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Truist Financial lowered their target price on NIKE from $97.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Telsey Advisory Group restated a “market perform” rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of NIKE in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on NIKE from $79.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, DA Davidson raised NIKE to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.77.

NIKE Price Performance

Shares of NIKE stock opened at $81.17 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $74.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $78.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $120.06 billion, a PE ratio of 25.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.01. NIKE has a 12 month low of $68.62 and a 12 month high of $105.57. The company has a current ratio of 2.22, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The footwear maker reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $12.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.11 billion. NIKE had a net margin of 9.98% and a return on equity of 36.99%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.03 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that NIKE will post 2.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NIKE Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.97%. NIKE’s payout ratio is 49.38%.

Insider Activity at NIKE

In related news, Director John W. Rogers, Jr. acquired 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 27th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $76.65 per share, for a total transaction of $191,625.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 34,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,636,989.95. This represents a 7.84 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Mark G. Parker sold 169,732 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.83, for a total value of $12,361,581.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 896,632 shares in the company, valued at $65,301,708.56. This trade represents a 15.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of NIKE

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of NIKE by 3.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 57,916,789 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $5,140,796,000 after acquiring an additional 1,862,021 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in NIKE by 32.4% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 36,340,736 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $2,749,903,000 after purchasing an additional 8,898,591 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of NIKE by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,376,558 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $1,915,110,000 after purchasing an additional 347,178 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of NIKE by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 24,545,937 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $1,857,389,000 after purchasing an additional 2,288,627 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of NIKE by 18.1% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 20,367,993 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $1,541,246,000 after purchasing an additional 3,121,929 shares during the last quarter. 64.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.