Nike's Incredible Digital Sales Fail to Offset Store Closures

Companies and Brands

Published: June 26, 2020 9:25 am

Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) released its fiscal fourth-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Thursday. The company posted a net loss of $0.51 per share on $6.3 billion in revenue for the quarter. Analysts expected per-share earnings of $0.09 in and $7.52 billion in revenue for the quarter. The same period of last year reportedly had earnings $0.62 per share and $10.18 billion.

During the latest quarter, revenues decreased 38% year over year, which was down 36% on a currency-neutral basis. This drop was primarily due to owned and partner physical store closures across its North America, EMEA and APLA units and was partially offset by growth in Greater China.

It’s no secret that fourth-quarter results were significantly affected by physical store closures across North America, EMEA and APLA, where 90% of Nike-owned stores were closed for roughly eight weeks in the quarter.

Nike’s wholesale partners largely followed the same pattern with closures and as a result, product shipments to wholesale customers were down nearly 50% resulting in lower total revenue and higher inventory.

One of the highlights from this report was that digital sales increased 75% in the fourth quarter, or 79% on a currency-neutral basis, with strong double-digit increases across all geographies and accounted for 30% of total revenue.

On the books, Nike ended its fiscal year with cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $8.79 billion.

Nike stock closed Thursday at $101.40, in a 52-week range of $60.00 to $105.62. The consensus price target is $100.42. Following the announcement, the stock was down about 3% at $97.90 in early trading indications Friday.