Nike Managing Competitive Challenges Better Than Expected

Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE)'s earnings release indicated that challenged businesses were stabilizing and highlighted the company’s speed of execution, Credit Suisse’s Christian Buss said in a report. He maintains an Outperform rating on the company, with a price target of $60.

Buss raised the revenue estimates for FY 2017 and 2018 from $34,442 million to $34,524 million and from $36,872 million to $36,960 million, respectively. The EPS estimates for FY 2017 and 2018 have been reduced from $2.50 to $2.36 and from $2.73 to $2.68, respectively.

Takeaways From The Earnings Release

Buss mentioned that the changes in estimates followed Nike’s earnings release, which reflected:

1. A better-than-expected performance by the North America and European business.
2. Moderating gross margin deterioration, as the company “stabilizes its challenged North America business more quickly than previously anticipated,” the analyst wrote.
3. Improved SG&A expense control.

“We believe the company is managing competitive challenges better than feared and as a result, we believe that a return to mid- to high-single digit constant currency revenue growth is likely to occur sooner than anticipated,” Buss commented. He added, however, that currency headwinds were increasing for Nike, and the reported earnings growth may not reaccelerate faster than anticipated.

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