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

Gray Foundation acquired a new stake in NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 7,200 shares of the footwear maker’s stock, valued at approximately $545,000. NIKE makes up approximately 0.2% of Gray Foundation’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest position.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in NIKE by 6,029.6% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 6,821,270 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $516,166,000 after purchasing an additional 6,709,985 shares in the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its holdings in NIKE by 1,209,638.7% in 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 in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in NIKE by 18.1% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 20,367,993 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $1,541,246,000 after purchasing an additional 3,121,929 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in NIKE by 358.6% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,015,267 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $228,165,000 after purchasing an additional 2,357,745 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings in NIKE by 3.3% in the 3rd 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $84.00 price objective on shares of NIKE in a report on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of NIKE from $80.00 to $74.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of NIKE from $97.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. DA Davidson upgraded shares of NIKE to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of NIKE from $79.00 to $70.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.77.

NIKE Trading Up 5.0 %

NKE stock opened at $80.32 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $74.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $78.21. NIKE, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $68.62 and a fifty-two week 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. The firm has a market cap of $118.80 billion, a PE ratio of 24.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.01.

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The footwear maker reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $12.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.11 billion. NIKE had a net margin of 9.98% and a return on equity of 36.99%. NIKE’s quarterly revenue was down 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.03 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that NIKE, Inc. will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NIKE Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman Mark G. Parker sold 169,732 shares of NIKE 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 completion of the sale, 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John W. Rogers, Jr. bought 2,500 shares of NIKE stock in a transaction on Friday, December 27th. The stock was purchased 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 directly owns 34,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,636,989.95. This represents a 7.84 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 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.