Highland Capital Management LLC Grows Stake in NIKE, Inc. $NKE

Highland Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) by 51.7% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 104,525 shares of the footwear maker’s stock after buying an additional 35,643 shares during the quarter. Highland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in NIKE were worth $7,425,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NIKE by 344.2% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 26,698,835 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $1,694,842,000 after purchasing an additional 20,688,013 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in NIKE by 24.9% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 45,383,916 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $2,880,971,000 after buying an additional 9,043,180 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC bought a new stake in NIKE during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $509,051,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of NIKE during the 1st quarter worth approximately $502,285,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of NIKE by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 113,151,080 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $7,182,831,000 after acquiring an additional 4,957,494 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.25% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at NIKE

In other news, Chairman Mark G. Parker sold 110,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.29, for a total transaction of $7,951,900.00. Following the transaction, the chairman directly owned 842,361 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,894,276.69. This represents a 11.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NIKE Stock Down 3.4%

Shares of NIKE stock opened at $72.01 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $74.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $67.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $106.34 billion, a PE ratio of 36.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.29. NIKE, Inc. has a 52-week low of $52.28 and a 52-week high of $84.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 2.19.

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, September 30th. The footwear maker reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.22. NIKE had a net margin of 6.23% and a return on equity of 21.16%. The firm had revenue of $11.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.96 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.70 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that NIKE, Inc. will post 2.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NIKE Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. NIKE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 82.05%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on NKE. Zacks Research upgraded NIKE from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of NIKE in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $85.00 price target on shares of NIKE and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. TD Cowen raised shares of NIKE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $62.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Finally, KeyCorp set a $90.00 target price on shares of NIKE and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.57.

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.