Everybody loves to hate Nike stock these days especially JP Morgan who just downgraded it to a SELL and lowered their price target to $40 but since the sharp selloff in early April, NKE has repeatedly approached the $40 area without producing a sustained breakdown. I think one day it touched $39.97 intraday but closed at $40.00. Each revisit has attracted buyers, suggesting institutional demand is accumulating at those prices rather than disappearing.
It’s been almost five months of trading near $40 and while that’s not great, people have been enjoying a 4 % dividend along the way. There’s something about round numbers. There just is. For retail and institutional investors both.
Tim Cook (Nike lead independent director) bought 50,000 shares on December 22, 2025 at a weighted average price of $58.97 per share, for a total investment of about $2.95 million. The actual purchases were executed between $58.96 and $58.97.
Elliott Hill (Nike President & CEO) bought 16,388 shares on December 29, 2025 at a weighted average price of $61.10 per share, investing roughly $1.0 million. The trades were executed between $61.09 and $61.10
And they both averaged down in April this year.
Tim Cook: 25,000 shares at $42.43 (about $1.06 million). Elliott Hill: about 23,660 shares at $42.27(about $1.0 million).
I guess you could say the December purchases proved premature (well definitely they did) but the April purchases reinforces the idea that management and the board view that range as attractive.
What do you think? Will it be $35 or $30 later this year? Sideways trading until September earnings?