Nike (NKE): Stock, Financials, Earnings & Company Overview

Quick Facts

What Is Nike?

Nike, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, markets, and sells athletic footwear, apparel, equipment, and accessories under the Nike Brand, along with the Jordan Brand and Converse. It is the largest athletic footwear and apparel maker in the world by revenue and is one of the most recognized brands on the planet thanks to its swoosh logo and “Just Do It” tagline. Nike does not manufacture most of its own products; instead it designs and markets them while outsourcing production to independent contract factories located mostly across Asia.

Nike trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker NKE and is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500. The company sells through wholesale partners such as sporting goods and department stores, and through its own direct channels, including Nike branded retail stores and its digital app and website network, often referred to internally as Nike Direct.

Company History

Nike’s roots trace back to 1964, when Phil Knight, a University of Oregon track athlete, and his college coach Bill Bowerman each put in $500 to start a company called Blue Ribbon Sports. The pair initially imported Japanese running shoes made by Onitsuka Tiger and sold them out of the trunk of Knight’s car at track meets across the Pacific Northwest.

By the early 1970s the partnership with the Japanese supplier had frayed, and the company decided to design and sell shoes under its own name. In 1971 Blue Ribbon Sports officially became NIKE, Inc., named after the Greek goddess of victory, and debuted its now famous swoosh logo, designed by graphic design student Carolyn Davidson for a modest fee. Bowerman continued experimenting with shoe soles, famously pouring rubber into a waffle iron to create a lighter, better gripping outsole, an innovation that became the Waffle Trainer.

Nike grew rapidly through the 1980s on the strength of running shoes and cross training footwear, then transformed into a global cultural force in 1984 when it signed a rookie basketball player named Michael Jordan, launching the Air Jordan line the following year. The company went public in December 1980 and has expanded through decades of product innovation, celebrity endorsements, the 2003 acquisition of Converse, and a long running shift toward direct to consumer digital sales. More recently, Nike has worked through a period of inventory gluts, discounting, intensified competition, and a China slowdown, prompting a leadership change and a companywide turnaround plan that is still underway in 2026.

Founders

Nike was founded by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman. Knight was a middle distance runner at the University of Oregon who later earned an MBA from Stanford, where he wrote a paper arguing that Japanese athletic shoes could challenge Germany’s dominance of the running shoe market. Bowerman was Knight’s track coach at Oregon and a tireless tinkerer who was constantly redesigning running shoes to shave weight and improve performance for his athletes. Knight served as Nike’s chief executive for most of the company’s first four decades and later chaired its board, while Bowerman’s shoe design experiments helped define Nike’s early technical reputation. Both men are widely credited as co-founders, and their partnership is often cited as one of the more consequential in American business history.

CEO

Nike’s President and Chief Executive Officer is Elliott Hill, a Nike veteran who spent more than 30 years at the company in earlier roles before returning to lead it. Hill took the top job after the board sought a leader with deep operating experience to steer Nike through a period of slowing sales, bloated inventory, and eroding market share. His turnaround plan, branded internally as “Win Now,” focuses on rebuilding relationships with wholesale partners like Foot Locker and Dick’s Sporting Goods, sharpening the sneaker product pipeline around sport specific performance categories such as running, basketball, and football, and resetting the struggling Greater China business. Matthew Friend serves as Nike’s Chief Financial Officer and frequently appears alongside Hill on earnings calls to discuss margin and inventory progress.

Headquarters

Nike is headquartered on a sprawling campus in Beaverton, Oregon, just outside Portland, known as the Nike World Headquarters. The campus houses thousands of employees across design, marketing, technology, and corporate functions, and its buildings are named after Nike sponsored athletes such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Mia Hamm. Nike also operates major offices and distribution hubs around the world, including in the Netherlands for its European business and Shanghai for Greater China operations.

Business Segments

Nike reports its results across four geographic operating segments plus Converse:

• North America, its largest and generally most profitable region, covering the United States and Canada.
• Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), a broad region spanning dozens of countries with a mix of wholesale and Nike Direct sales.
• Greater China, which includes mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, and has been Nike’s most challenged region in recent years amid local brand competition and softer consumer spending.
• Asia Pacific and Latin America (APLA), covering fast growing markets such as Japan, South Korea, India, and Brazil.
• Converse, the casual footwear brand best known for the Chuck Taylor All Star, reported as its own segment.

Within the Nike Brand, sales are also tracked by channel: wholesale (selling through third party retailers) and Nike Direct (Nike owned stores plus Nike Digital, meaning Nike.com and the Nike, SNKRS, and training apps).

Products and Services

Nike’s product range covers footwear, apparel, and equipment for nearly every major sport, sold under a family of brands and trademarks:

• Footwear: Running shoes, basketball shoes, training shoes, football and soccer cleats, and lifestyle sneakers such as the Air Force 1, Air Max, and Dunk lines. Footwear consistently generates roughly two thirds of Nike Brand revenue.
• Apparel: Performance and lifestyle clothing, including compression wear, outerwear, and team uniforms.
• Jordan Brand: A premium basketball and streetwear label built around Michael Jordan’s legacy, now one of Nike’s fastest growing brands in its own right.
• Converse: Casual sneakers and apparel, anchored by the Chuck Taylor All Star.
• NikeSkims: A newer women’s athleisure line launched in partnership with Skims.
• Equipment and accessories: Bags, socks, balls, protective gear, eyewear, and digital devices.
• Digital services: The Nike App, SNKRS app for sneaker releases, and Nike Training Club, along with membership programs that support direct relationships with consumers.

Revenue Breakdown

For fiscal 2026 (ended May 31, 2026), NIKE, Inc. generated total revenue of $46.4 billion. Revenue for the Nike Brand alone was $45.2 billion, with the remainder coming from Converse. By sales channel, wholesale remains the larger contributor, though Nike Direct, meaning Nike owned stores and digital, has grown into a substantial share of the business over the past decade.

Within Nike Direct, digital sales (Nike.com and the Nike apps) have softened over the past two fiscal years as the company pulled back on discount driven online promotions, while Nike owned physical stores have held up somewhat better. Geographically, North America is Nike’s largest and best performing market, while EMEA and especially Greater China have seen revenue declines during the current turnaround period, partly offset by growth in the performance categories of running, basketball, and football.

Financial Performance

Nike’s revenue peaked above $51 billion in fiscal 2023 and 2024 before declining as the company worked through excess inventory, heavier discounting, and softer demand, particularly in China. Fiscal 2026 marked a period of stabilization, with revenue essentially flat versus the prior year.

Fourth quarter fiscal 2026 results, reported June 30, 2026, showed revenue of $11.0 billion, down slightly year over year, and net income of $1.1 billion, up sharply from a weak prior year quarter. A large part of that jump came from an approximately $986 million one time benefit tied to the expected recovery of tariffs paid under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which pushed gross margin up 890 basis points to 49.2 percent for the quarter. Excluding that benefit, gross margin was roughly 40.2 percent, essentially flat with the prior year, a sign that underlying profitability is still under pressure even as the top line stabilizes.

Stock Information

NKE shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange and have been under significant pressure over the past several years, falling well off their all time closing high of $163.63 reached in November 2021. As of early July 2026, the stock trades around $44, down roughly 30 percent year to date and more than 40 percent over the trailing twelve months.

Nike’s beta above 1.2 means the stock has historically moved somewhat more than the broader market, and its wide 52 week range highlights how sensitive shares are to swings in earnings guidance, tariff policy, and demand signals out of China. Analyst opinion is split on the near term outlook, with several banks trimming price targets after the fiscal 2026 results while others maintain buy ratings on hopes that the Win Now turnaround gains traction in fiscal 2027.

Dividends

Nike has paid a quarterly cash dividend for decades and has a long record of raising its payout, historically extending well over 20 consecutive years of dividend increases before the recent slowdown. The most recent quarterly dividend was $0.41 per share, which annualizes to roughly $1.64, putting the trailing dividend yield at approximately 3.7 percent based on the current share price, well above Nike’s historical average yield.

The elevated payout ratio, meaning the share of earnings paid out as dividends, reflects the fact that Nike’s profit has fallen faster than its dividend during the current downturn. The company has continued to pay and modestly grow its dividend through the turnaround, treating it as a priority for shareholder returns, but a payout ratio approaching 80 percent leaves less room for further increases unless earnings recover.

Competitors

Nike competes across footwear, apparel, and sports equipment against a wide field of global and regional brands:

• Adidas, Nike’s largest global rival in both footwear and apparel, particularly strong in Europe and in the sneaker resale and lifestyle categories.
• Lululemon Athletica, a fast growing competitor in premium athletic apparel, especially womenswear.
• Under Armour, a U.S. based performance apparel and footwear brand.
• Puma, a German sportswear company competing in footwear, apparel, and athlete sponsorships.
• Skechers, a major player in comfort focused and value priced footwear.
• New Balance and ASICS, both strong in running and have gained share during Nike’s recent struggles.
• On Holding and Deckers Brands (Hoka, UGG), newer entrants that have taken meaningful share in the premium running category.

Several of these smaller, more specialized brands, particularly On, Hoka, and New Balance, have been cited by analysts and by Nike’s own management as having gained ground during the period when Nike was working through inventory and product freshness issues, adding urgency to the current turnaround.

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