American Century Companies Inc. Sells 67,527 Shares of NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE)

American Century Companies Inc. lowered its position in NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) by 6.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 906,879 shares of the footwear maker’s stock after selling 67,527 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in NIKE were worth $68,624,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NKE. Plancorp LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NIKE by 13.6% during the 4th quarter. Plancorp LLC now owns 9,616 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $728,000 after buying an additional 1,148 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its stake in NIKE by 44.8% during the fourth quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 112,842 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $8,539,000 after acquiring an additional 34,934 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in NIKE in the fourth quarter worth about $5,643,000. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. increased its stake in shares of NIKE by 39.2% during the fourth quarter. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. now owns 64,326 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $4,868,000 after purchasing an additional 18,099 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Holderness Investments Co. lifted its holdings in shares of NIKE by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Holderness Investments Co. now owns 17,185 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $1,300,000 after purchasing an additional 420 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on NIKE from $67.00 to $66.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on NIKE from $105.00 to $99.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of NIKE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $75.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of NIKE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of NIKE from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $102.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.38.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NIKE news, Chairman Mark G. Parker sold 169,732 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.83, for a total transaction of $12,361,581.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 896,632 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $65,301,708.56. This trade represents a 15.92 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John W. Rogers, Jr. bought 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 27th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,636,989.95. This represents a 7.84 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

NIKE Stock Performance

Shares of NKE opened at $66.64 on Wednesday. NIKE, Inc. has a 52 week low of $65.17 and a 52 week high of $98.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 2.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The stock has a market cap of $98.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.57, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.02. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $74.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $77.21.

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The footwear maker reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $11.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.02 billion. NIKE had a net margin of 9.98% and a return on equity of 36.99%. The firm’s revenue was down 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. On average, analysts expect that NIKE, Inc. will post 2.05 EPS for the current year.

NIKE Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.40%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. NIKE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.16%.

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.