NIKE (NYSE:NKE) Now Covered by Analysts at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC assumed coverage on shares of NIKE (NYSE:NKE) in a report issued on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm issued a buy rating and a $84.00 target price on the footwear maker’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on NIKE from $95.00 to $92.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on NIKE from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Williams Trading raised NIKE from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $67.00 to $93.00 in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Truist Financial raised NIKE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $83.00 to $97.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on NIKE from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NIKE currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.86.

NIKE Stock Up 2.4 %

Shares of NKE opened at $79.26 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 2.36. NIKE has a one year low of $70.75 and a one year high of $123.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $118.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.71, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.03. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $80.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $82.42.

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The footwear maker reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $11.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.64 billion. NIKE had a return on equity of 39.84% and a net margin of 10.60%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.94 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that NIKE will post 2.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NIKE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.02%. This is an increase from NIKE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.37. NIKE’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.85%.

Institutional Trading of NIKE

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its position in NIKE by 1,209,638.7% during the 3rd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 6,508,394 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $575,342,000 after acquiring an additional 6,507,856 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in NIKE by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 57,916,789 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $5,140,796,000 after acquiring an additional 1,862,021 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new stake in NIKE during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $148,635,000. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in NIKE during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $144,927,000. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in NIKE by 138.3% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,715,689 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $204,681,000 after acquiring an additional 1,576,049 shares during the period. 64.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.