Tag Archives: NKE

US Bancorp DE Sells 38,229 Shares of Nike (NKE)

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US Bancorp DE cut its position in shares of Nike (NYSE:NKE) by 2.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,481,566 shares of the footwear maker’s stock after selling 38,229 shares during the quarter. US Bancorp DE owned 0.09% of Nike worth $98,435,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NKE. Koch Industries Inc. acquired a new stake in Nike during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $286,000. Capital Bank & Trust Co boosted its holdings in Nike by 63.7% during the third quarter. Capital Bank & Trust Co now owns 653,742 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $33,897,000 after purchasing an additional 254,372 shares in the last quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd boosted its holdings in Nike by 16.6% during the third quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 1,955,000 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $101,367,000 after purchasing an additional 278,600 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Nike by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 215,542 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $13,482,000 after purchasing an additional 7,497 shares in the last quarter. Finally, U S Global Investors Inc. acquired a new stake in Nike during the third quarter valued at approximately $461,000. 65.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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In other news, insider Eric D. Sprunk sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total value of $3,500,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 191,959 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,437,130. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Chairman Mark G. Parker sold 135,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total transaction of $9,450,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 1,637,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $114,641,520. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Nike in a research note on Monday, May 7th. HSBC upgraded shares of Nike from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $77.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, April 27th. Canaccord Genuity set a $62.00 target price on shares of Nike and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, April 8th. ValuEngine upgraded shares of Nike from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 3rd. Finally, DZ Bank reiterated a “sell” rating on shares of Nike in a research note on Monday, March 26th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and twenty-five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Nike presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $68.96.

Shares of Nike opened at $70.94 on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Nike has a 12-month low of $69.62 and a 12-month high of $71.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $116.07 billion, a PE ratio of 28.26, a PEG ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 1.73.

Nike (NYSE:NKE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 22nd. The footwear maker reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.15. Nike had a net margin of 5.11% and a return on equity of 33.38%. The company had revenue of $8.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.68 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. equities analysts expect that Nike will post 2.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 4th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 1st. Nike’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.87%.

Nike Profile

NIKE, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, markets, and sells athletic footwear, apparel, equipment, and accessories worldwide. It offers NIKE brand products in nine categories: running, NIKE basketball, the Jordan brand, football, men's training, women's training, action sports, sportswear, and golf.

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Nike (NYSE:NKE)

Stay Away From Apple Component Players – Cramer’s Lightning Round (5/16/18)

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Stocks discussed on the Lightning Round segment of Jim Cramer’s Mad Money Program, Wednesday, May 16.

Bullish Calls

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ): Cramer has been a fan and still likes the stock.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG): They are a smart management company.

Foot Locker (NYSE:FL): Cramer thinks it’s okay. He prefers Nike (NYSE:NKE) even though it’s at the 52-week high.

Insperity (NYSE:NSP): This “business optimization company”, as Cramer calls it, doesn’t quit and he has been recommending it for a long time.

Bearish Calls

Gulfport Energy (NASDAQ:GPOR): Don’t go down the food chain. Buy Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB) as it’s a high quality company.

Preferred Apartment Communities (NYSEMKT:APTS): Cramer is not a fan of multi-family REITs. The 7% yield seems like a red flag.

Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ:CRUS): “We’re not really recommending the components players that go into Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) right now. It’s just too hard.”

Frontline (NYSE:FRO): The crude carriers have done poorly.

>>Read Wednesday’s Mad Money summary here

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Should You Buy Lululemon Athletica Inc. Stock in 2018? 3 Pros, 3 Cons

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Lululemon Athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU) is back in shape. It had a rough couple of years, including product recalls and its infamous see-through pants problem. However, management has righted the ship. LULU stock is back near all-time highs, quarterly earnings results are solid, and the company is targeting big expansion plans overseas.

Is this finally the moment for Lululemon stock to start working out for shareholders again? Or will the company’s lingering issues send it tumbling? Here are the pros and cons for LULU stock heading into 2018.

LULU Stock Cons

Not a Cheap Stock: Lululemon is back to a premium valuation, no matter how you slice it. The company is trading at 38x trailing and 27x forward earnings. That’s not anywhere near the industry median for apparel.

The company is at a steep 4x price/sales ratio. And you had better believe in the company’s brand, because there are few other hard assets here. The company trades at more than 7x book value.

That’s all fine and well if Lululemon is able to grow for many years to come. However, if it’s just the first mover on an increasingly crowded fashion trend, those valuation ratios will not hold up over time. Competitors such as Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) remain dangerous as well.

Is Athleisure a Fad? A long-running point of debate for LULU stock is whether the company’s products are a fad or the marker of a new persistent trend. Both sides make fair points. And to be honest, it could probably still go either way.

That said, Lululemon’s proponents will note that the company has continued its growth well past where initial doubters thought it’d reach. There’s no sign that yoga, as a trend, is dying off either. LULU stock bears, on the other hand, will point to Lululemon’s struggling Canadian sales.

Remember that the company is originally from Vancouver. It developed its brand and market share there first. So it is somewhat troubling that Canadian sales volume is down three years in a row, and by meaningful amounts.

That said, the Canadian economy isn’t performing that well right now, and besides, Canada is only 20% of Lululemon’s business today. Still, declining Canadian sales do suggest that the company will reach saturation on athleisure at some point.

Key Technical Resistance Level: LULU stock has had a bad history with the $80/share level. The stock originally hit the $80 level back in 2012 during its first big growth phase. Shares consolidated and then made another push for $80 in 2013. LULU stock did nothing until 2016, when it again rallied sharply, hit $80, and then went south.

After dropping below $50 earlier this year, investors have given LULU one more chance. Shares are almost back up to the pivotal $80 mark as we await all-important holiday sales figures.

Needless to say, anything less than great numbers, and LULU is going to get turned back yet again at this key overhead level. On the plus side, should Lululemon hit it out of the park for Q4, you’d likely see a large technical move up to the $90 area as traders buy the breakout over five-year resistance.

LULU Stock Pros

Making New Markets: The bulls have a decent retort for the “athleisure is tapped out” argument above. It’s that Lululemon is successfully stretching into new markets beyond just western women.

For one, we’re seeing the rise of male athleisure clothing. Lululemon is up to 18% of its customers being men, and the company sees this moving toward a quarter of its customers within the next few years. It’s unlikely Lululemon will ever be a company whose stores are full of men, but even a modest presence in male athletic apparel can move the needle.

On top of that, Lululemon is largely going abroad for future growth, with initiatives such as “Unroll China.” This year’s Unroll China event had expected participation of 10,000 people across six Chinese cities. There is reason to expect that Lululemon’s brand and products will make a good fit with consumers’ tastes in that region.

Strong Quarterly Results: To break through the long-standing barrier at $80/share and finally make new highs, LULU stock needs a solid holiday season. If last quarter is any guide, things are trending well for the company.

The company grew revenues by almost 14% year-over-year this quarter. That marked the company’s best growth rate since June 2016. The company grew net income by 16%.

That even faster pickup reflected Lululemon’s rising profit margins as it regains pricing power as the memory of the product defects starts to fade. And given the company’s quickly rising cash position, it authorized a sporty new $200-million stock buyback.

Activist Investor: For investors in LULU stock, the last five years have been a disappointment. With the company’s great brand and seemingly strong growth potential, not surprisingly, now shareholders are getting more vocal.

Their wishes for a more active role in management’s strategy appear set to play out. Major LULU stock holder Advent International — which bought out half of the founder’s stake in 2014 — is getting more directly involved.

Lululemon appointed Tricia Patrick, a managing director at Advent, to their board of directors at the end of August. Ms. Patrick previously worked in private equity for both Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) and Bain Capital.

She brings the sort of activist shareholder value-focused point of view that Lululemon appears to be lacking. While there is no guarantee that activist shareholder strategies can get the LULU stock price up, it’s a reason for optimism.

Verdict for LULU Stock

LULU stock isn’t cheap at the moment. And it’s up against a key resistance level where it has failed many times before. So there is plenty of reason to be cautious right now.

With that said, if you believe athleisure has more room to grow, LULU stock could have a lot more upside. Just wait for a break above the key $80 level. It’ll be a safer trade once the stock breaks out, and short sellers start feeling the need to cover their positions.

At the time of this writing, the author held no positions in any of the aforementioned securities. You can reach him on Twitter at @irbezek.

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Why Investors Shouldn’t Bet on Lululemon Athletica Inc. Stock

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Since mid-October, Lululemon Athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU) has pulled off an impressive rally. A key has been a standout earnings report, which saw a beat on the top and bottom lines. Yet it is still important to note that the year has still been fairly choppy, with the overall return for LULU stock at about 21%.

So what’s next? What should investors do with LULU stock? Well, I think the best approach is to be cautious. While the company has been able to get some of its momentum back, there are still some nagging issues.

Let’s first look at some of the pros on LULU stock. First of all, the company certainly has a powerful brand, which has been able to command premium pricing. Lululemon also has a loyal customer base.

As for the financials, they are solid. There is $650 million in the bank and no long-term debt. And here are some other metrics from the latest earnings report:

– Total comparable sales rose by 8%.

– The direct to consumer segment jumped by 26% (showing that the company is getting traction with its online efforts).

– Gross profit increased 16% to $322 million.

– Growth in Asia spiked by nearly 100%, with a 450%+ gain in China.

– The company reconfirmed its goal of achieving $4 billion in revenues by 2020.

So yes, things have been going quite well.

LULU Stock and Competitive Pressures

LULU has been able to manage the competitive threats. But this can only last so long. LULU has to fight tough rivals like Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE), adidas AG (ADR) (OTCMKTS:ADDYY), Gap Inc (NYSE:GPS) and Under Armour Inc (NYSE:UAA).

There are also scrappy startups that have access to large amounts of venture capital, like Kate Hudson’s Fabletics. Oh, and yes, there is buzz that the mighty Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) will make a play for the market.

Actually, there are already signs that the competitive pressures are having an impact. For example, Canaccord analyst Camilo Lyon believes that the recent warehouse sales point to some ominous problems.

In a recent note, he stated: “This increase in frequency of warehouse sales could be in response to slowing brand momentum amidst rising competitive pressure and shifting fashion trends.”

Interestingly enough, his research indicates there is a growing trend toward denim, which is likely to weigh on the company. What’s more, his survey found that 18% of customers plan on buying fewer LULU pants in the coming year

Keep in mind that Lyon has a $45 price target on LULU stock.

Bottom Line on LULU Stock

If you take a look at the chart of LULU stock, it is kind of remarkable. For the most part, there has been a cap at about $80 per share, after which there is usually a notable drop. This has happened twice in 2012, twice in 2013, and once in 2016!

Then again, the fact is that Lululemon has a long history of inconsistent performance, such as with inventory issues. Let’s face it, this is common for any innovative brand.

Will things be different this time around? I would not bet on it. After all, the LULU stock price is already baking in much of the good fundamentals and then some. Note that the price to earnings multiple is at an expensive 39X, but the annualized growth rate for revenues is only about 13%. In other words, it would not be surprising to see yet another pullback.

Tom Taulli is the author of High-Profit IPO Strategies, All About Commodities and All About Short Selling. Follow him on Twitter at @ttaulli. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

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Why Investors Shouldn’t Bet on Lululemon Athletica Inc. Stock

Leave a reply

Since mid-October, Lululemon Athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU) has pulled off an impressive rally. A key has been a standout earnings report, which saw a beat on the top and bottom lines. Yet it is still important to note that the year has still been fairly choppy, with the overall return for LULU stock at about 21%.

So what’s next? What should investors do with LULU stock? Well, I think the best approach is to be cautious. While the company has been able to get some of its momentum back, there are still some nagging issues.

Let’s first look at some of the pros on LULU stock. First of all, the company certainly has a powerful brand, which has been able to command premium pricing. Lululemon also has a loyal customer base.

As for the financials, they are solid. There is $650 million in the bank and no long-term debt. And here are some other metrics from the latest earnings report:

– Total comparable sales rose by 8%.

– The direct to consumer segment jumped by 26% (showing that the company is getting traction with its online efforts).

– Gross profit increased 16% to $322 million.

– Growth in Asia spiked by nearly 100%, with a 450%+ gain in China.

– The company reconfirmed its goal of achieving $4 billion in revenues by 2020.

So yes, things have been going quite well.

LULU Stock and Competitive Pressures

LULU has been able to manage the competitive threats. But this can only last so long. LULU has to fight tough rivals like Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE), adidas AG (ADR) (OTCMKTS:ADDYY), Gap Inc (NYSE:GPS) and Under Armour Inc (NYSE:UAA).

There are also scrappy startups that have access to large amounts of venture capital, like Kate Hudson’s Fabletics. Oh, and yes, there is buzz that the mighty Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) will make a play for the market.

Actually, there are already signs that the competitive pressures are having an impact. For example, Canaccord analyst Camilo Lyon believes that the recent warehouse sales point to some ominous problems.

In a recent note, he stated: “This increase in frequency of warehouse sales could be in response to slowing brand momentum amidst rising competitive pressure and shifting fashion trends.”

Interestingly enough, his research indicates there is a growing trend toward denim, which is likely to weigh on the company. What’s more, his survey found that 18% of customers plan on buying fewer LULU pants in the coming year

Keep in mind that Lyon has a $45 price target on LULU stock.

Bottom Line on LULU Stock

If you take a look at the chart of LULU stock, it is kind of remarkable. For the most part, there has been a cap at about $80 per share, after which there is usually a notable drop. This has happened twice in 2012, twice in 2013, and once in 2016!

Then again, the fact is that Lululemon has a long history of inconsistent performance, such as with inventory issues. Let’s face it, this is common for any innovative brand.

Will things be different this time around? I would not bet on it. After all, the LULU stock price is already baking in much of the good fundamentals and then some. Note that the price to earnings multiple is at an expensive 39X, but the annualized growth rate for revenues is only about 13%. In other words, it would not be surprising to see yet another pullback.

Tom Taulli is the author of High-Profit IPO Strategies, All About Commodities and All About Short Selling. Follow him on Twitter at @ttaulli. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

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