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Nike (NKE) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Nike (NKE - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $81.28, moving +1.32% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.56% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 1.77%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 2.2%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the athletic apparel maker had gained 8.2% over the past month. This has lagged the Consumer Discretionary sector's gain of 8.66% and outpaced the S&P 500's gain of 6.41% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from NKE as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be March 28, 2019. In that report, analysts expect NKE to post earnings of $0.63 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 7.35%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $9.49 billion, up 5.66% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $2.63 per share and revenue of $39.11 billion. These totals would mark changes of +8.68% and +7.45%, respectively, from last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for NKE should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.2% higher within the past month. NKE currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note NKE's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 30.52. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 14.18.

We can also see that NKE currently has a PEG ratio of 2.48. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Shoes and Retail Apparel was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.51 at yesterday's closing price.

The Shoes and Retail Apparel industry is part of the Consumer Discretionary sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 99, putting it in the top 39% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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