Nike – Just Buy It

Nike, Inc. (NKE) is the 30th most popular global brand according to the Global 500 2012 list released by Brand Directory. The company designs, develops and markets athletic footwear and apparel, sports equipment, accessories and services. Its major markets include North America, Western Europe, emerging markets and Greater China, which together contribute over 81% of Nike’s total revenues. North America alone contributes around 41% of Nike’s total revenues.

Nike beat analyst estimates for earnings for its most recent quarter. It announced diluted quarterly earnings of $0.86 per share for the first quarter (1Q) of fiscal year (FY) 2014, while analysts were expecting EPS of $0.78. Nike’s shares were up over 6.5% on the day following the announcement.

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Nike vs. Adidas – The Better Fit

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Nike’s Earnings Beat Estimates by a Penny

Nike Inc. (NKE), the leader in global athletic footwear, reported a 40% jump in its net income for the quarter ending November 30. The company posted better-than-expected earnings of $0.59 per share from continuing operations, which is 4% higher than $0.57 recorded last year.

Mark Parker, President and CEO of the company, pleased with their second quarter performance, said: "Our strong second quarter results show why NIKE leads the industry.”

Revenues from continuing operations, which were in-line with street’s expectations, were up 8% to $6.4 billion, compared to $6 billion recorded in the comparable period last year.

NIKE, the company’s premier brand registered a 9% revenue jump in the three-month period, while revenues for its Converse range rose 11%. NIKE recorded revenues of $6.1 billion in the second quarter. The increase in the brand’s revenue was driven by growth in product categories and also in geographical sales. Meanwhile, Converse contributed revenues of $360 million to the company, primarily driven by strong performance in three regions, namely North America, UK, and China.

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Nike Company Description

Nike, Inc. (NKE) was founded by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight in January 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports. It was officially renamed Nike – after the Greek goddess of victory – in 1971. The company is a leader in the global athletic footwear industry. It currently generates 59% of its revenues from outside North America, and is the 60thth most popular brand in the world, as per 2013 data from the Brand Directory, compared to Adidas at 187. The company has two major segments, NIKE Brand and Other Businesses with NIKE Brand accounting for over 90% of the company’s total revenues. The Other Businesses segment includes Converse, NIKE Golf and Hurley International Read More: NKE 

S&P Raises NIKE Inc. (NKE) from 'A+' to 'AA-'; Outlook Stable

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today it raised its corporate credit rating on Beaverton, Ore.-based NIKE Inc. (NYSE: NKE) to 'AA-' from 'A+'. The outlook is stable. We also raised our unsecured debt rating to 'AA-' from 'A+'.

"The one notch upgrade reflects our view that NIKE's financial policy will remain "conservative" and that credit measures, supported by consistently solid operating performance, will remain strong," said credit analyst Linda Phelps. "We believe NIKE's strong credit metrics and liquidity provides good cushion given the highly competitive nature of the company's business, susceptibility of its products to changing consumer preference, and the possibility of modest changes to the company's longer-term financial policy, as we are uncertain what change in financial advice might arise if the company's founder relinquishes his currently significant control. Accordingly, we are revising our financial risk descriptor to "minimal" from "modest"."

Our rating outlook on NIKE is stable. We expect NIKE's credit measures to remain very strong while supporting the company's ongoing growth initiatives. Additionally, we believe NIKE's operating performance will be relatively stable. Read More :  Nike Inc.

NIKE Inc. (NYSE:NKE) – New Puma CEO seeks to return company to sporting roots

Germany’s Puma will return to its sporting roots to restore growth to the struggling brand whose profits crashed 70 percent last year, the group’s new chief executive said. Puma ranks a distant third in the sports apparel industry behind Nike and Adidas and CEO Bjoern Gulden’s turnaround plan breaks with the company’s efforts over two decades under former chief Jochen Zeitz to strike a chord with fashion-led consumers. “We are a sports company, not a sports lifestyle company,” Bjoern Gulden told journalists, speaking in public for the first time since taking the helm in July. Gulden wants Puma, which is 84 percent owned by French luxury group Kering, to go back to its roots in football and athletics, sports he thinks it has neglected.

  

Nike, Inc. (NKE), currently valued at $68.12B, began trading this morning at $75.59. Shares have traded today between $75.58 and $76.63 per share with a one year range of $44.83 to $77.66. NKE shares are currently priced at 25.17x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively inexpensive compared to the industry’s 33.79x earnings multiple. Read More : Nike, Inc. (NKE)

A Day in the Life of Nike CEO Mark Parker

WERE YOU TO RUN into Mark Parker, Nike's NKE -1.38%  CEO, on the company's pristine Beaverton, Oregon, campus, you might mistake him for one of the 21 PhDs who work in the athletic powerhouse's top-secret research lab.

Creative-casual duds (blazer, polo, jeans, Nike Roshe sneakers) and a professorial bearing (quiet intonation, short beard, slight stoop) make it difficult to square this somewhat unassuming figure with his position as the fourth-highest-paid head executive in the country. A fanatical devotion to sneaker design and a technical fluency rare among CEOs propelled the 58-year-old Nike lifer to the top perch of the footwear and apparel giant, which has reached annual revenues of $24 billion, up 60 percent since he was appointed in 2006. Nike CEO Mark Parker