What to Expect When Nike Reports After the Close

Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) is scheduled to release its fiscal second-quarter financial results after the markets close on Thursday. The consensus estimates call for $0.40 in earnings per share (EPS) and $8.4 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $0.50 and $8.18 billion in revenue.

The fiscal first-quarter earnings were relatively weak, but Nike has recovered handily since then.

The company announced in mid-June that a new company alignment was created as a result of the Consumer Direct Offense, which simplified Nike Brand’s structure from six geographies to four, consisting of North America; Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA); Greater China; and Asia Pacific & Latin America (APLA).

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This past quarter, Mark Parker, Nike’s board chair, president and CEO, commented on the new alignment:

This quarter, we captured near-term opportunities through our new Consumer Direct Offense. Looking ahead to the rest of fiscal 2018, we will ignite NIKE’s next horizon of global growth through the strength of our brand, the power of our innovative products and the most personal, digitally-connected experiences in our industry.

Also during this quarter, Nike said that its annual sales will reach over $50 billion within five years.

Excluding Thursday’s move, Nike had outperformed the broad markets, with its stock up 25% year to date. However, over the past six months the stock is only up about 21%.

A few analysts weighed in on Nike ahead of the report:

• Canaccord Genuity has a Hold rating and a $64 price target.
• Citigroup has a Buy rating with a $74 price target.
• Buckingham Research has a Buy rating with a $71 price target.
• Telsey Advisory Group has an Outperform rating and a $68 target.
• Stifel has a Buy rating and a $74 price target.
• Guggenheim has a Buy rating with a $70 price target.
• Pivotal Research has a Hold rating with a $60 price target.
• Piper Jaffray has a Hold rating with a $58 price target.
• Deutsche Bank has a Buy rating with a $76 price target.

Shares of Nike traded up about 0.7% at $64.01 Thursday morning, with a consensus analyst price target of $62.28 and a 52-week range of $50.35 to $65.19.

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