Nike Inc (NKE) Wows Investors with a Stellar Q1

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By Carly Forster

Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) is a Beaverton, Oregon based American multinational corporation that designs, develops, manufactures and sells athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories for a wide variety of sports and activities. The sporting company released its first quarter earnings report on Thursday, September 25th and its results had investors excited. As a result, the stock reached an all-time high of $89.99 in Friday trading.

During its Q1 results, Nike reported $1.09 earnings per share on a diluted basis, beating analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.21. During the same quarter last year, Nike posted $0.86 earnings per share. The company had revenue of $8.0 billion for the quarter. The athletic company’s profit for the quarter was up 15% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Nike will post $3.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

“Fiscal year 2015 is off to a strong start. Our connection to consumers and ability to innovate, combined with our powerful global portfolio, is a complete offense,” said Mark Parker, President and CEO of NIKE, Inc. “Nike has never been better positioned to realize our tremendous growth potential.” A big reason for Nike’s successful quarter is due to the merchandise sales produced from the soccer World Cup which took place earlier this year in Brazil.

Shares of Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) opened at $87.98 on Friday, September 26th. The sports retailer has a 1-year high of $89.99 and a 1-year low of $69.85. The stock’s daily moving average is $88.65 and it had a 50-day moving average of $79.60. The market cap for Nike is $77.41 billion and its P/E ratio is 28.03.

On September 26th, Janney analyst Eric Tracy upgraded his Nike rating from Neutral to Buy and raised his price target from $83 to $90. He noted, “Nike’s ability to refresh the pipeline (Flyknit cross platform, performance apparel, digital evolution) coupled with improving distribution/digital continues to support pricing power and global market share gains even in perceived mature markets…And while the World Cup benefit will fade, the 2016 Olympics in Brazil provides another global branding event for emerging markets, even in the face of Brazil macro issues.” Tracy currently has a 78% success rate making recommendations, earning a +23.1% average return per recommendation. He has rated Nike a total of 13 times, earning a 75% success rate recommending the stock.

Similarly, on September 26th UBS analyst Michael Binetti reiterated his Buy rating for Nike and raised his price target from $90 to $96. He explained, “Our back-out math shows that Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) only raised the full-year 2015 EPS by the amount of the first quarter beat, and left implied second to fourth quarter guidance basically unchanged despite beating first quarter targets on every line.” Binetti currently has an 84% success rate in recommending stocks, earning a +20.3% average return per recommendation. He has also rated Nike a total of 7 times, earning a 100% success rate recommending the stock.

On average, the top analyst consensus for Nike is Moderate Buy.

To see more recommendations for Nike, visit TipRanks today!

Carly Forster writes about stock market news. She can be reached at [email protected]

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