It has not been a great few days for Nike (NYSE:NKE). First, it got hit with a massive pile of potential fines over the misclassification of its workers, and now it’s taking another hit, this time from the analyst sector. A recent downgrade was enough to send Nike down marginally at the time of writing.
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The pivot in question came from Williams Trading analyst Sam Poser, who dropped his rating on Nike stock from Hold to Sell. The problem for Nike will effectively be two-fold, Poser noted; the first problem is that Nike will have some serious pressure on it all the way into about this time next year. The second is that the product mix Nike has in mind may not be enough to save it. Poser pointed out that Nike’s product line is getting stale, and it doesn’t have much in the way of new offerings coming up that could turn the tide.
One such offering—and after seeing it, it’s easy to agree with Poser here—is the clogposite. A collaborative effort between Nike and Supreme, the clogposite is making a comeback from the early 2000s to offer “a cozy post-game go-to” shoe. The clogposite will go live starting in spring/summer 2024 and will likely not be much help for Nike’s attempts to pull itself out of those financial problems Poser described. It only got worse, though, as Citi noted that the recent less-than-positive results at Foot Locker (NYSE:FL) are likely to drag on Nike’s own results.
However, most analysts aren’t with Poser and Citi on this one. Nike stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy among analysts, thanks to 22 Buy ratings, three Holds, and two Sells.
