Gray Foundation Takes $545,000 Position in NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE)

Gray Foundation bought a new stake in NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 7,200 shares of the footwear maker’s stock, valued at approximately $545,000. NIKE makes up about 0.2% of Gray Foundation’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest position.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Range Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in NIKE in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $642,000. Cacti Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in NIKE in the 4th quarter worth approximately $9,987,000. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd purchased a new stake in NIKE in the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,384,000. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. boosted its position in NIKE by 31.1% in the 4th quarter. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. now owns 25,835 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $1,955,000 after purchasing an additional 6,124 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FNY Investment Advisers LLC boosted its position in NIKE by 5,745.9% in the 4th quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 8,652 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $654,000 after purchasing an additional 8,504 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.25% of the company’s stock.

NIKE Stock Performance

Shares of NIKE stock opened at $80.32 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $74.37 and a 200 day moving average of $78.21. NIKE, Inc. has a 12 month low of $68.62 and a 12 month high of $106.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $118.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 2.22 and a quick ratio of 1.51.

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) last announced 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 company had revenue of $12.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.11 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.03 EPS. NIKE’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that NIKE, Inc. will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current year.

NIKE Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other NIKE news, Director John W. Rogers, Jr. bought 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 27th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $76.65 per share, with a total value of $191,625.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 34,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,636,989.95. The trade was a 7.84 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Mark G. Parker sold 169,732 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.83, for a total value of $12,361,581.56. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 896,632 shares in the company, valued at $65,301,708.56. This trade represents a 15.92 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NKE has been the topic of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on NIKE from $79.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on NIKE from $105.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on NIKE from $77.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group raised NIKE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Monday. Finally, DA Davidson raised NIKE to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.77.

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.