NIKE (NYSE:NKE) Price Target Cut to $56.00 by Analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) had its price target lowered by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $64.00 to $56.00 in a research note released on Monday,Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has a neutral rating on the footwear maker’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on NKE. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of NIKE from $72.00 to $57.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. Cfra Research raised shares of NIKE to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Wells Fargo & Company lowered NIKE from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $75.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on NIKE from $105.00 to $99.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on NIKE from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NIKE presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.85.

NIKE Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE NKE opened at $57.37 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a current ratio of 2.22. NIKE has a 1 year low of $52.28 and a 1 year high of $98.04. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $64.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $71.82. The company has a market capitalization of $84.86 billion, a PE ratio of 17.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.15.

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The footwear maker reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $11.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.02 billion. NIKE had a net margin of 9.98% and a return on equity of 36.99%. NIKE’s revenue was down 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that NIKE will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current year.

NIKE Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.79%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. NIKE’s payout ratio is 53.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NIKE

In other news, Chairman Mark G. Parker sold 169,732 shares of NIKE stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 896,632 shares in the company, valued at $65,301,708.56. This trade represents a 15.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Robert Holmes Swan acquired 8,600 shares of NIKE stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 4th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $58.46 per share, with a total value of $502,756.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 31,983 shares in the company, valued at $1,869,726.18. This represents a 36.78 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NIKE

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NKE. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 8,898,591 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of NIKE by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,376,558 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $1,915,110,000 after acquiring an additional 347,178 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of NIKE by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 24,545,937 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $1,857,389,000 after acquiring an additional 2,288,627 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of NIKE by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 20,988,207 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $1,332,331,000 after purchasing an additional 620,214 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of NIKE during the 4th quarter valued at $1,126,288,000. 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.