5 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Buy Right Now

3. NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 67 

NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) is a sports goods manufacturer based in the United States. Due to slowing demand in China and ongoing supply chain disruptions, many analysts recently cut their price targets on Nike, but maintained positive ratings due to the company’s quarterly earnings beat, its long-term opportunity and position as the world’s leading sports company. The company’s 20-year streak of growing dividends also makes it one of the best blue chip stocks to buy, with a yield of 1.21% as of July 1.

On June 28, Morgan Stanley analyst Alex Straton maintained an ‘Overweight’ rating on NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) shares, and revised the price target to $149 from $159, noting that he keeps a bullish long-term view on the company despite recent gross margin pressure. Deutsche Bank analyst Gabriella Carbone and Wedbush analyst Tom Nikic also had ‘Buy’ and ‘Outperform’ ratings on NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) shares, respectively.

As of the end of the first quarter, 67 hedge funds reported ownership of stakes in NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE), as compared to 68 hedge funds in the previous quarter. Fundsmith LLP was the leading Q1 shareholder of the athletic goods company, with a position consisting of 6.7 million shares valued at around $905 million.

Clearbridge Investments talked about the performance and future prospects of NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) in its Q4 2021 investor letter. Here is what it said:

“NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) is another play on e-commerce as well as the anticipated growth in consumer spending as we learn to live with COVID-19. After selling out of the stock in 2016 due to competitive concerns, we were motivated to repurchase shares because of optimism around a new management team’s focus on accelerating Nike’s shift toward e-commerce and direct-to-consumer (DTC) distribution. Near-term supply chain issues in Vietnam and retail weakness in China that we see as ephemeral provided a good buying opportunity. We do not believe the market is giving proper credit to Nike’s potential to deliver attractive, high-single-digit revenue growth while delivering operating margin expansion as more merchandise is sold direct. NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) is also still under indexed to the women’s category, which we see as a significant ongoing catalyst.”