Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Stock Position in NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE)

Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) by 7.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 34,115 shares of the footwear maker’s stock after buying an additional 2,459 shares during the period. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in NIKE were worth $2,581,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of NIKE by 5.1% during the 2nd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 11,171 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $842,000 after purchasing an additional 543 shares during the period. Angeles Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in NIKE during the second quarter valued at approximately $319,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in NIKE by 0.9% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,025,616 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $454,151,000 after buying an additional 52,500 shares during the last quarter. One Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of NIKE by 103.3% in the 2nd quarter. One Capital Management LLC now owns 11,519 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $868,000 after purchasing an additional 5,854 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI increased its position in NIKE by 31.1% in the second quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 95,466 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $7,205,000 after buying an additional 22,620 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.25% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on NKE shares. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of NIKE from $110.00 to $105.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. DA Davidson upgraded NIKE to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on NIKE from $115.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on NIKE from $92.00 to $82.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price target on NIKE from $105.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 16th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.96.

NIKE Trading Down 1.4 %

NKE stock opened at $71.09 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $76.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $78.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $105.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 2.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. NIKE, Inc. has a twelve month low of $70.53 and a twelve month high of $107.43.

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. NIKE had a net margin of 10.60% and a return on equity of 39.84%. The company had revenue of $12.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.11 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.03 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that NIKE, Inc. will post 2.72 earnings per share for the current year.

NIKE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.25%. This is an increase from NIKE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.37. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. NIKE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.38%.

Insider Activity

In other NIKE news, Director John W. Rogers, Jr. bought 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 27th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $76.65 per share, for a total transaction of $191,625.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 34,403 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,636,989.95. The trade was a 7.84 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

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.