Avanza Fonder AB Buys New Shares in NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE)

Avanza Fonder AB purchased a new stake in NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 119,182 shares of the footwear maker’s stock, valued at approximately $9,019,000.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 6,507,856 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of NIKE by 358.6% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,015,267 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $228,165,000 after acquiring an additional 2,357,745 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in NIKE by 3.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 57,916,789 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $5,140,796,000 after purchasing an additional 1,862,021 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new position in NIKE during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $148,635,000. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new stake in shares of NIKE in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $144,927,000. 64.25% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at NIKE

In other news, Director John W. Rogers, Jr. acquired 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 27th. The stock was bought at an average price of $76.65 per share, with a total value of $191,625.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 34,403 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,636,989.95. This represents a 7.84 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. DA Davidson raised shares of NIKE to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price target on NIKE from $112.00 to $109.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Telsey Advisory Group downgraded shares of NIKE from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $93.00 to $80.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $73.00 target price on shares of NIKE in a research report on Thursday, December 26th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of NIKE from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.96.

NIKE Stock Up 0.0 %

NKE stock opened at $71.14 on Friday. NIKE, Inc. has a 52-week low of $70.32 and a 52-week high of $107.43. 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 capitalization of $105.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a 50-day moving average of $75.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $78.01.

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The footwear maker reported $0.78 EPS 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 business had revenue of $12.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.11 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.03 earnings per share. NIKE’s revenue was down 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that NIKE, Inc. will post 2.1 EPS for the current year.

NIKE Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.25%. This is a boost from NIKE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.37. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. NIKE’s dividend payout ratio is 49.38%.

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.