Insider Buying: NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) Director Purchases 8,600 Shares of Stock

NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) Director Robert Holmes Swan acquired 8,600 shares of NIKE stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 4th. The shares were bought at an average price of $58.46 per share, with a total value of $502,756.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 31,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,869,726.18. The trade was a 36.78 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

NIKE Stock Performance

NYSE:NKE opened at $59.40 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.22, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $70.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $75.39. NIKE, Inc. has a twelve month low of $52.37 and a twelve month high of $98.04. The company has a market capitalization of $87.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.15.

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The footwear maker reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $11.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.02 billion. NIKE had a net margin of 9.98% and a return on equity of 36.99%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that NIKE, Inc. will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NIKE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.69%. NIKE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.16%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NIKE

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NKE. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of NIKE during the fourth quarter worth about $1,126,288,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of NIKE by 32.4% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 36,340,736 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $2,749,903,000 after buying an additional 8,898,591 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NIKE by 6,029.6% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 6,821,270 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $516,166,000 after buying an additional 6,709,985 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of NIKE by 18.1% during 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 buying an additional 3,121,929 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its holdings in NIKE by 1,302.7% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 2,602,101 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $196,901,000 after purchasing an additional 2,416,601 shares during the period. 64.25% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on NKE shares. China Renaissance started coverage on shares of NIKE in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Cfra Research upgraded shares of NIKE to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of NIKE from $92.00 to $82.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Citigroup downgraded shares of NIKE from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $102.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of NIKE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $75.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NIKE presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $87.38.

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.