JPMorgan Chase & Co. Lowers NIKE (NYSE:NKE) Price Target to $64.00

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) had its price objective decreased by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $73.00 to $64.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has a neutral rating on the footwear maker’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on NKE. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on NIKE from $105.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on NIKE from $79.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on NIKE from $92.00 to $82.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. China Renaissance assumed coverage on NIKE in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Needham & Company LLC decreased their price target on NIKE from $84.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Fifteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $87.38.

NIKE Trading Down 5.4 %

Shares of NKE stock opened at $68.02 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $74.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $77.40. NIKE has a fifty-two week low of $65.17 and a fifty-two week high of $98.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $100.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a quick ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 2.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) last announced 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. NIKE had a return on equity of 36.99% and a net margin of 9.98%. The business had revenue of $11.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NIKE will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NIKE Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.35%. NIKE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John W. Rogers, Jr. purchased 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 27th. The shares were bought at an average price of $76.65 per share, for a total transaction of $191,625.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 34,403 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,636,989.95. This trade represents a 7.84 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Mark G. Parker sold 169,732 shares of the 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 owns 896,632 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,301,708.56. This trade represents a 15.92 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NIKE

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of NIKE in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,126,288,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of NIKE by 32.4% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 36,340,736 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $2,749,903,000 after acquiring an additional 8,898,591 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of NIKE by 6,029.6% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 6,821,270 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $516,166,000 after acquiring an additional 6,709,985 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P boosted its position in shares of NIKE by 1,209,638.7% in the third quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 6,508,394 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $575,342,000 after acquiring an additional 6,507,856 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position 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 acquiring an additional 3,121,929 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.25% 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.