6. Nike Inc. (NYSE:NKE)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders as of Q3: 75
Pershing Square’s Equity Stake: $1.44 Billion
Nike Inc. (NYSE:NKE) is among Pershing Square’s newer investments; from having no stake in it by Q1 2024, Pershing Square purchased over 3.04 million shares in the company in Q2 and holds roughly 16.28 million shares of the company as of Q3 2024. The stock represented a little over 11% of Ackman’s portfolio. As opposed to 67 hedge funds that had stakes in Nike at the end of the previous quarter, 75 held its shares by Q3 2024.
Based in Oregon, Nike Inc. (NYSE:NKE) is globally known for its athletic footwear and apparel. Employing over 83000 workers globally, it operates through three segments: Nike Brand, Converse, and Corporate. Nike Brand includes the geographical division of North America; Europe, Middle East & Africa; Greater China; Asia Pacific & Latin America; and Global Brand Divisions while Converse covers the entire supply chain for sneakers, apparel, and accessories. Corporate deals with the business of both Nike Brand and Converse that is managed through the company’s central foreign exchange risk management program.
Nike Inc. (NYSE:NKE) reported its quarterly revenue for Q2 of fiscal year 2025 as $12.35 billion. The Nike Brand segment was responsible for over 96% of the company’s total revenue as it alone generated $11.95 billion in the quarter ending November 2024. The company boasted high second-quarter earnings for fiscal 2025, totaling $0.78 and beating a consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.15.
Recently, Nike’s new CEO Elliot Hill openly admitted that he had long aspired to the corner office. However, he said his journey to the title was fueled majorly by his confidence in his leadership abilities, his passion for sports, and an “irrational love” for the Nike brand. Just two months into his tenure, Hill said that his leadership role at the company was his “destiny.”
Mar Vista Focus strategy stated the following regarding NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) in its second quarter 2024 investor letter:
“Nike maintains its position as the global leader in sportswear. However, its revenue growth has been hampered by a lack of innovation, and its recovery is further complicated by deteriorating macroeconomic conditions in the US and China. The company’s renewed focus on innovation and efforts to re-engage with wholesale channels may eventually help restore growth, but we believe increased skepticism regarding management’s ability to execute is justified.”
However, all through 2024, Nike Inc. (NYSE:NKE) has been at the forefront of using innovative and technological advancements to improve upon its products and services: it strategically integrated machine learning, data science, augmented reality, and recommender models into its operations in a remarkable show of innovation. The company’s initiatives in 2018 and 2019, namely Nike Fit and Personalized Customer Experience have paved the way for the 2024 initiatives of Generative AI for Product Design, Athlete Imagined Revolution (A.I.R.) Project, and AI-Optimized Air Technology. These new efforts use innovative technologies like Generative AI, 3D printing, computational design, and virtual reality to dramatically enhance the consumer experience, optimize the supply chain, and fuel product innovation.
