NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) was among the stocks Jim Cramer discussed on Mad Money, along with the recent sell-off in the market. Cramer highlighted the company’s struggles, as he stated:
How much worse can the athleisure space get? If I say this group’s going out of style, that is putting it lightly… Nike itself has become a real [dog barking buzzer], something that’s all too real for me because we own it for the Charitable Trust. My bad… A few years ago, athleisure was one of the, it was the best consumer trend out there… Back when athleisure seemed unstoppable, it felt like a lifestyle shift. People were wearing sweatpants while working from home, wearing workout clothes and sneakers to dinner… Nike was the behemoth that owned athletes’ performance sports culture… Once COVID hit, athleisure practically became the uniform of the pandemic. Maybe that made this trend look more durable than it really was, though. But once the world went back to normal, people went back to the office and started wearing regular clothes again…
Nike used to be a global machine, the biggest logo in sports. But even Nike’s been struggling with the same broader issues: competition, stale products, not enough freshness, and the consumer is no longer willing to pay up for anything with a swoosh and jacked up prices. In its latest quarter, Nike’s revenue was down 3% on a currency-neutral basis. Nike’s direct revenue fell 7% currency neutral. Nike Digital was down 9%. Converse was down 35%. That’s catastrophic.
Their gross margin fell 130 basis points to 40.2%. This is not the Nike investors fell in love with. It’s not the Nike I knew. Now, I know that Elliott Hill, the relatively new CEO, is trying to turn things around. I’m going to give him a little chance here, but the turn’s taking longer than we’d like. And part of that is the overall weakness in athleisure… Nike… sells for 24 times earnings. That’s a little high. That’s in part because it is doing better… Nike can work if the turnaround becomes visible and the product feels strong.
Photo by Adam Nowakowski on Unsplash
NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) is an athletic and casual footwear, apparel, equipment, and accessories company that sells its products under brands, including Nike, Jordan, and Converse.
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