Nike Stock Slips Ahead of Q2 Earnings: Retail’s Cautious

Nike shares fell 2.5% on Wednesday, rising slightly in the after-hours session, ahead of the footwear giant’s Q2 earnings release, with retail sentiment staying bearish.

Nike is expected to report earnings on Thursday after the bell. Wall Street is keen to see assurances of how the company is implementing its turnaround strategies under its new CEO.

In September, Nike named its former senior executive Elliott Hill as CEO, succeeding John Donahoe amid an attempt to revive sales at the company faced with stiff competition.

Hill had been with Nike for 32 years and helped it grow the business to more than $39 billion, according to a Reuters report.

Nike is expected to post $0.63 in earnings per share on revenue of $12.11 billion, according to Stocktwits data.

The footwear giant beat EPS estimates four times in the past four quarters. But it missed revenue estimates thrice in the same period.

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits turned ‘neutral’ from ‘extremely bullish’ a week ago.

NKE sentiment meter and message volumes on Dec 18 as of 9:35 pm ET

Many Stocktwits users were speculating a steep fall in its stock price after the earnings. But several were also bullish on its prospects.

Nike's price target was recently lowered by several brokerages.

Telsey Advisory lowered the target to $93 from $96 with an Outperform rating, The Fly.com reported. According to the report, the brokerage firm expects a turnaround could happen over the next year, noting that new CEO Elliott Hill's initial strategic view and Q3 guidance should help determine the extent of the company's challenges and the turnaround plan

Meanwhile, Evercore ISI analyst Michael Binetti also lowered price target to $97 from $105 with an Outperform rating. According to the analyst, Nike is looking to leverage holiday traffic to increase markdowns and increase inventory clearing. The firm lowered its FY25 EPS forecast "significantly" to $2.25 from $2.70 ahead of the company's fiscal Q2 report. The firm also lowers its FY26, FY27 and FY28 EPS forecasts to $2.70, $3.50 and $4.00, respectively.

Deutsche Bank analyst Krisztina Katai lowered the price target on Nike to $82 from $92 with a Buy rating and pondering whether he will rebase expectations.

A deeper inventory and franchise reset and further investments in the business in the second half of 2025 could put Nike back on a growth path starting in fiscal 2026, according to Deutsche Bank, Fly.com reported. 

Deutsche Bank foresees “multiple negative earnings revisions in fiscal 2025” as coming or close to an end.

Nike stock is down 27.8% year-to-date.

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