B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG Acquires 22,833 Shares of NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE)

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG boosted its holdings in NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,662,284 shares of the footwear maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 22,833 shares during the quarter. NIKE accounts for approximately 1.3% of B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG owned 0.11% of NIKE worth $125,414,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in NKE. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of NIKE in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,126,288,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in NIKE by 32.4% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 36,340,736 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $2,749,903,000 after acquiring an additional 8,898,591 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in NIKE by 6,029.6% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 6,821,270 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $516,166,000 after acquiring an additional 6,709,985 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in NIKE by 18.1% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 20,367,993 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $1,541,246,000 after acquiring an additional 3,121,929 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of NIKE by 358.6% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,015,267 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $228,165,000 after acquiring an additional 2,357,745 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.25% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Telsey Advisory Group restated a “market perform” rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of NIKE in a report on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group cut their target price on NIKE from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Dbs Bank raised NIKE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on NIKE from $92.00 to $82.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on NIKE from $95.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Fifteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $87.38.

NIKE Price Performance

NYSE:NKE opened at $63.32 on Monday. NIKE, Inc. has a 52-week low of $62.76 and a 52-week high of $98.04. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $74.16 and a 200 day moving average of $76.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a current ratio of 2.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $93.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.02.

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The footwear maker reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $11.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.02 billion. NIKE had a return on equity of 36.99% and a net margin of 9.98%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that NIKE, Inc. will post 2.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NIKE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. NIKE’s payout ratio is 53.16%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Mark G. Parker sold 169,732 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.83, for a total transaction of $12,361,581.56. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 896,632 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,301,708.56. This represents a 15.92 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

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.