Welcome back, Nike.
Nike is gaining a couple of bucks Thursday, just minutes into the open. The stock is up 3.5% to $55.30 in early action.
Investors weren't snapping up shares of Nike (NKE) ahead of the company's investor meeting Wednesday. Surprisingly, Nike remained relatively mum on its pilot program with Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) , which was also the case during the company's recent quarterly conference call on September 26.
There hasn't been a ton of analyst commentary so far, but Deutsche Bank analyst Paul Trussell is keeping his buy rating and $61 price target on Nike after hearing its latest outlook. He's "incrementally more confident in the long term" even though there's a few "question marks" surrounding the next 18 months.
Nike stock rallied to nearly $56 on the day, but ultimately closed at $54.94, up 2.85% after management provided its five-year outlook. The company expects high single digit revenue growth and mid-teen earnings growth annually over that time period.
Nike is relying on innovation to drive sales going forward and is putting more emphasis on its Nike+ membership, as these customers tend to spend far more than the average non-member customer. It's looking to shake up its physical retail partnerships as the industry continues to change at a rapid pace, while also beefing up its direct-to-consumer business.
Not everyone was basking in Nike (NKE) sun, though. For instance, Under Armour (UA) (UAA) hit fresh 52-week lows during the Wednesday session. Foot Locker (FL) hit a new low too, but eventually rallied and closed slightly higher on the day after Nike said it's targeting key partnerships with select retailers, one of which is Foot Locker.
- Nike Is Pounding Out a Major Price Reversal to Play Catch-Up by Year-End
- Slasher! Nike Wants to Cut Shoe Production Time by Half
- Further Shakeups Send Under Armour's Stock Falling
Wednesday was setting up as a pretty ugly day for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Visa (V) aside, the rest of the Dow (DIA) was struggling. Boeing BA was the main culprit, but names like General Electric GE and International Business Machines (IBM) didn't help. Not to say that Nike sparked the rally, but many stocks in the index happened to find their lows shortly after noon and rally from there (right when Nike stock was surging).
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