Groupe la Francaise Purchases 118,287 Shares of NIKE, Inc. $NKE

Groupe la Francaise grew its position in NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) by 206.1% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 175,692 shares of the footwear maker’s stock after buying an additional 118,287 shares during the period. Groupe la Francaise’s holdings in NIKE were worth $11,504,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. AlTi Global Inc. lifted its position in shares of NIKE by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. AlTi Global Inc. now owns 36,996 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $2,813,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the period. Peregrine Asset Advisers Inc. lifted its position in shares of NIKE by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Peregrine Asset Advisers Inc. now owns 15,119 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $934,000 after acquiring an additional 181 shares during the period. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of NIKE by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,666 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $296,000 after acquiring an additional 192 shares during the period. Crew Capital Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of NIKE by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Crew Capital Management Ltd. now owns 13,752 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $873,000 after buying an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sculati Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of NIKE by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Sculati Wealth Management LLC now owns 14,387 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $1,089,000 after buying an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.25% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on NKE shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised NIKE from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $64.00 to $93.00 in a report on Monday, July 28th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on NIKE from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of NIKE in a report on Monday. Hsbc Global Res raised NIKE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of NIKE in a report on Friday, June 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $78.22.

NIKE Trading Up 2.9%

NKE stock opened at $78.4040 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $72.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.69. NIKE, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $52.28 and a fifty-two week high of $90.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $115.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.27. 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 (NYSE:NKE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 26th. The footwear maker reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.02. NIKE had a return on equity of 23.33% and a net margin of 6.95%.The firm had revenue of $11.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.69 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.99 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that NIKE, Inc. will post 2.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NIKE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 2nd. NIKE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.07%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NIKE 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 directly owned 842,361 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,894,276.69. This trade represents a 11.55% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

NIKE Company Profile

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.