Nike Inc. Third Quarter Earnings Sneak Peek

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Nike, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, March 22, 2012. Nike designs and markets high-quality footwear, apparel, equipment, and accessory products throughout the world.

Nike, Inc. Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is for net income of $1.16 per share, a rise of 7.4% from the company’s actual earnings for the year-ago quarter. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved down from $1.25. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate moved down. It has been unchanged at $1.16 during the last month. Analysts are projecting profit to rise by 12.5% versus last year to $4.94.

Past Earnings Performance: Last quarter, the company reported profit of $1 per share versus a mean estimate of net income of. The company has beaten estimates for the past three quarters.

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Wall St. Revenue Expectations: On average, analysts predict $5.81 billion in revenue this quarter, a rise of 14.4% from the year-ago quarter. Analysts are forecasting total revenue of $24.13 billion for the year, a rise of 15.7% from last year’s revenue of $20.86 billion.

Analyst Ratings: Analysts are bullish on this stock, with 11 analysts rating it as a buy, one rating it as a sell and four rating it as a hold.

A Look Back: In the second quarter, profit rose 2.6% to $469 million ($1 a share) from $457 million (94 cents a share) the year earlier, exceeding analyst expectations. Revenue rose 18.4% to $5.73 billion from $4.84 billion.

Key Stats:

For three consecutive quarters, the comapny has seen net income rise. Net income rose 15.4% in the first quarter and 13.8% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year.

Revenue has gone up in the past four quarters. Revenue rose 17.5% in the first quarter from the year earlier, climbed 13.6% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year from the year-ago quarter and 7.3% in the third quarter of the last fiscal year.

Stock Price Performance: Between December 19, 2011 and March 16, 2012, the stock price rose $18.15 (19.5%), from $93.07 to $111.22. The stock price saw one of its best stretches over the last year between February 21, 2012 and March 5, 2012, when shares rose for 10 straight days, increasing 4.4% (+$4.64) over that span. It saw one of its worst periods between December 9, 2011 and December 19, 2011 when shares fell for seven straight days, dropping 4.4% (-$4.28) over that span.

(Company fundamentals by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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