NIKE (NYSE:NKE) Rating Increased to Buy at Jefferies Financial Group

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage presently has a $115.00 price objective on the footwear maker’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $75.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 50.33% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on NKE. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on NIKE from $79.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $84.00 target price on shares of NIKE in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of NIKE from $79.00 to $70.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. DA Davidson raised shares of NIKE to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of NIKE from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $102.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.77.

NIKE Price Performance

NKE stock opened at $76.50 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $74.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $78.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 2.22 and a quick ratio of 1.51. The stock has a market cap of $113.15 billion, a PE ratio of 23.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.01. NIKE has a one year low of $68.62 and a one year high of $106.62.

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The footwear maker reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $12.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.11 billion. NIKE had a return on equity of 36.99% and a net margin of 9.98%. NIKE’s quarterly revenue was down 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.03 EPS. On average, analysts predict that NIKE will post 2.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at NIKE

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NIKE

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of NIKE during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,126,288,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of NIKE by 32.4% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 36,340,736 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $2,749,903,000 after purchasing an additional 8,898,591 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in NIKE by 6,029.6% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 6,821,270 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $516,166,000 after buying an additional 6,709,985 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its position in 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 worth $575,342,000 after buying an additional 6,507,856 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in 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 during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.25% of the company’s stock.

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.