NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) Stock Position Raised by Howard Capital Management Inc.

Howard Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) by 6.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,263 shares of the footwear maker’s stock after buying an additional 505 shares during the quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in NIKE were worth $625,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in NIKE in the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Caitlin John LLC lifted its stake in shares of NIKE by 117.0% in the 4th quarter. Caitlin John LLC now owns 371 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America bought a new stake in NIKE in the third quarter worth $30,000. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new position in NIKE during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Bank of Jackson Hole Trust bought a new position in NIKE during the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. 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 note on Monday, December 16th. Truist Financial decreased their target price on NIKE from $97.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of NIKE from $77.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of NIKE from $79.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 20th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.77.

NIKE Price Performance

Shares of NIKE stock opened at $80.32 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $118.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $74.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $78.21. NIKE, Inc. has a twelve month low of $68.62 and a twelve month high of $106.10. 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 (NYSE:NKE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The footwear maker reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.15. NIKE had a return on equity of 36.99% and a net margin of 9.98%. The company had revenue of $12.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.11 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.03 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that NIKE, Inc. will post 2.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NIKE Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. NIKE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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