Tufton Capital Management Takes $5.69 Million Position in NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE)

Tufton Capital Management purchased a new stake in NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 75,151 shares of the footwear maker’s stock, valued at approximately $5,687,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of NIKE by 3.3% in 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 buying an additional 1,862,021 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of NIKE by 5.1% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 27,442,145 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $2,425,886,000 after buying an additional 1,343,093 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of NIKE by 1.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,029,380 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $2,204,451,000 after buying an additional 251,411 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased 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 valued at $1,541,246,000 after buying an additional 3,121,929 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in NIKE by 6.0% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 10,303,182 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $910,801,000 after purchasing an additional 583,207 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. TD Cowen decreased their target price on NIKE from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of NIKE in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on NIKE from $80.00 to $74.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on NIKE from $77.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, DA Davidson raised NIKE to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.77.

NIKE Stock Performance

Shares of NIKE stock opened at $79.86 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $74.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $78.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $118.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.01. NIKE, Inc. 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 released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The footwear maker reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.15. NIKE had a return on equity of 36.99% and a net margin of 9.98%. The business had revenue of $12.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.11 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.03 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that NIKE, Inc. will post 2.05 EPS for the current year.

NIKE Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. NIKE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director John W. Rogers, Jr. bought 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 27th. The stock was bought at an average price of $76.65 per share, with a total value of $191,625.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 34,403 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,636,989.95. The trade was a 7.84 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Chairman Mark G. Parker sold 169,732 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.83, for a total value of $12,361,581.56. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 896,632 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $65,301,708.56. The trade was a 15.92 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

NIKE 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.