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Why Did Under Armour (UAA) Stock Sink Today?

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Shares of Under Armour (UAA - Free Report) sunk near their 52-week low on Wednesday after fellow sportswear giant Nike (NKE - Free Report) posted some worrisome results in its first-quarter 2018 earnings report.

Nike beat revenue expectations and topped earnings estimates, but profits fell year-over-year and sales remained flat.

Despite topping Wall Street projections and extending its earnings beat streak to 21 straight quarters, Nike recorded its slowest quarterly sales growth in almost seven years on Tuesday. One of the biggest reasons for this downturn: lagging North American sales, which dipped 3% from the year-ago period.

An array of factors have harmed Nike on its home turf. For one, the rise of e-commerce and online shopping has hurt some of its biggest retail partners’ sales, including Finish Line , Foot Locker (FL - Free Report) , and Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS - Free Report) .

But competition from a major sportswear player has also helped diminish Nike’s North American presence and could continue to cut into its revenues at home down the road.

Adidas (ADDYY) recently passed Nike’s Jordan brand as the second-most popular sneaker company in the U.S. Through the first eight months of the year, Adidas claimed 11.3% of the U.S. shoe market, up from 6.6% a year ago, based on a report from the market research group NPD.

Nike’s market share fell just 2% and still dominates the overall U.S. shoe market in terms of total revenue, claiming 37% of all U.S. shoe dollars. But if this slight dip in market share and increased competition has caused Nike investors to worry—its shares dipped over. 3.90% Wednesday—Under Armour investors might just be shaking in their shoes.

Nike has more wiggle room than the Baltimore, Maryland-based athletic apparel brand. For example, the Oregon-based company has already started to adjust to shifting consumer habits through several new initiatives, including inking a deal with Amazon (AMNZ) and making an internal online sales push. 

Under Armour is much younger and has had far less overall success. More than that, it seems that the company does not hold the cultural cachet to fight back against Adidas’ U.S. rise and Nike’s number one spot.

Even though the company sponsors some of the most popular athletes in North America, it hasn’t led to great results recently, as Under Armour has seen its stock price plummet almost 58% over the last year.

Shares of Under Armour fell by over 2% on Wednesday to rest just above its 52-week low of $15.92 per share.

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