NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) Shares Purchased by First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its stake in shares of NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) by 37.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 28,945 shares of the footwear maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,906 shares during the quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in NIKE were worth $3,143,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of NKE. Newport Trust Company LLC purchased a new stake in NIKE in the third quarter valued at approximately $679,775,000. Flossbach Von Storch AG boosted its position in NIKE by 433.5% in the third quarter. Flossbach Von Storch AG now owns 4,128,587 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $394,775,000 after buying an additional 3,354,677 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in NIKE by 117.0% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,986,441 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $285,564,000 after purchasing an additional 1,610,273 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in NIKE by 37.6% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,791,531 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $553,786,000 after purchasing an additional 1,583,541 shares in the last quarter. Finally, J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in NIKE in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $97,724,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on NKE shares. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on NIKE from $124.00 to $116.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on NIKE from $127.00 to $117.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Bank of America upgraded NIKE from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $110.00 to $113.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on NIKE from $110.00 to $100.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on NIKE from $135.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NIKE currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $116.26.

NIKE Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE NKE traded down $1.95 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $90.32. 9,783,059 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,345,498. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 2.74 and a quick ratio of 1.89. NIKE, Inc. has a twelve month low of $88.66 and a twelve month high of $128.38. The company has a market cap of $136.32 billion, a PE ratio of 26.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.08. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $96.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $103.28.

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The footwear maker reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $12.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.28 billion. NIKE had a return on equity of 39.41% and a net margin of 10.14%. Research analysts predict that NIKE, Inc. will post 3.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NIKE Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 4th were given a dividend of $0.37 per share. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 1st. NIKE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.53%.

NIKE Company Profile

NIKE, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, markets, and sells athletic footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories, and services worldwide. The company provides athletic and casual footwear, apparel, and accessories under the Jumpman trademark; and casual sneakers, apparel, and accessories under the Converse, Chuck Taylor, All Star, One Star, Star Chevron, and Jack Purcell trademarks.