Nike, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) has announced its fiscal fourth quarter 2015 financial results, easily beating the market’s earnings estimate of $0.73 by posting earnings per share of $0.98. It has been an excellent quarter for the footwear, sports, and apparel company, as its quarterly revenues improved 5% year-over-year to $7.78 billion, $90 million higher than the market’s expectations. Nike reported 10% growth in its fiscal revenue for fiscal year 2015 as well, as its annual revenue for the 12 months ending May 31, 2015 was $30.60 billion against fiscal year 2014’s revenue of $27.80 billion. During the fiscal fourth quarter, Nike reported gross margins of 46.2% with a growth of 60-basis points primarily because of higher selling prices for its products. The earnings appear to have caught the market somewhat off-guard, as Nike traded down by nearly 1% today amid rumblings that it would miss estimates and that headwinds for the company would become apparent upon the release of this afternoon’s earnings report. That appears not to be the case, and shares have already flourished in after-market trading, gaining over 2%.
NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) investors should be aware of an increase in enthusiasm from smart money lately. The sports footwear manufacturer attracted investments from 56 hedge fund managers in the first quarter of 2015 with net investments worth $2.94 billion. The hedge fund sentiment is positive, as Nike witnessed an increase in net investments from $2.60 billion and in total ownership from 55 hedge fund positions at the end of 2014. There has been high insider activity for the sports brand, with Jeanne P. Jackson, President of the Product & Merchandising unit, making multiple sales transactions, including the sale of 20,000 shares each on both February 20 and May 5. Don Blair, EVP and CFO, made the largest sales transactions in the last six months by selling 50,000 shares each on both March 9 and March 20.
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So, let’s go over the fresh hedge fund action surrounding NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE).
