How Much Is Nike Worth and Is It Worth Buying?

When describing how much a business is worth, you’ll have to look deeper than just the company’s share price. Companies often split their stock to keep it in an affordable range and make it more attractive to investors. Nike is no exception to this practice, as it has split its stock seven times in its history. So, if you can’t value Nike simply on its share price, what’s the answer? One popular metric is market capitalization. As of the close of business on July 1, 2022, Nike’s market cap was over $160 billion.

Although Nike is among the world’s largest retailers of sporting apparel, it started out as a humble shoe-making operation founded by University of Oregon track-and-field coach Bill Bowerman and former student Phil Knight. Originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports when founded in 1964, the company released the first Nike-branded shoe in 1972. Nike went public in 1980 and has been a name known the world over ever since.

Some fun facts about Nike that many people might not know:

• Basketball star Michael Jordan, whose name has become synonymous with Nike’s Air Jordan shoe, was slapped with a $5,000-per-game fine in the 1984 season for wearing red-and-black Nike shoes that were not “regulation colors,” per the NBA. Nike happily paid the fine every game of the season for the “free” publicity.

• Nike was not an official Olympic sponsor in 2012, but it managed to score a huge PR victory in the Olympic games when — without paying any endorsement dollars — it got over 400 athletes to wear its neon-yellow Volt shoes.

• Co-founder Bill Bowerman experimented with a waffle iron to make some early prototypes of running shoes. Known as “Moon Shoes,” only 12 pairs were ever produced, and one pair sold at auction for a $437,500 in 2019 — at the time, the highest amount ever paid for a pair of sneakers.

• The most expensive shoes ever made were Drake’s Gold OVO x Air Jordans, which he commissioned artist Metthew Sena to design. Drake paid $1.9 million for the one-of-a-kind pair.

Behind these amusing anecdotes is a thriving, multibillion-dollar international powerhouse. Here’s a look at the current financial position of Nike, along with an overview of the company’s history, financials and future projections.

Nike’s Worth

Market capitalization is a simple measure of a company’s net worth that requires only two variables: current stock price and total outstanding shares. For example, if a company has 10 million outstanding shares of stock and its stock trades at $25 per share, the company has a market capitalization of $250 million. Nike currently has about 1.574 billion outstanding shares of stock, so 1.574 billion times the closing stock price of $101.18 on July 1 equals $160 billion.

Market capitalization is a useful way to value companies because it places them all on a level playing field. Take Seaboard Corporation as an example. On July 1, the stock closed at $3,853. But it “only” had a market cap of $4.47 billion. Market cap, therefore, is a better way to understand the true size of a company, regardless of its share price.

It’s important to note that market cap is not the be-all and end-all when it comes to stock valuation methods. Because market cap is tied to a company’s stock price, it changes frequently. And market cap fails to take into account any of the direct financial metrics of a company, such as book value, growth rate or earnings per share. Price/earnings ratio is another popular metric that is tied to a company’s market share price, but it also depends heavily on a company’s earnings. For some investors, this makes P/E a more important interpretation of a company’s valuation.

Nike Market Cap

As with all stocks, Nike’s market cap changes from moment to moment depending on changes in share price. When a company increases its outstanding shares, it also increases its market cap, but that happens much less regularly than changes in share price. Here’s a look at Nike’s share price range over the past 52 weeks:

Share price: $99.53-$179.10

Nike’s market cap range has experienced a corresponding fluctuation during that time. The daily fluctuations in Nike’s share price can make for a broad valuation range for Nike as a company.

Nike Net Worth

One simple way to calculate a company’s net worth is to subtract its liabilities from its assets. Using that measure, Nike’s net worth as of May 31 was $15.28 billion.

However, methods of determining the valuation of a company are wide and varied, each with its own merits and blind spots.

GOBankingRates uses company data to calculate net worth in a slightly different manner. The GOBankingRates company net worth is a calculation of a company’s worth based solely on concrete, measurable figures, taking into account full-year profits and revenue from the last three years in addition to the company’s assets and debts.

By this GOBankingRates metric, Nike’s net worth is currently $60,576,166,667.

For some investors, net worth is a much more compelling valuation than market cap. In fact, another name for “company net worth” is “shareholders’ equity.” For accounting purposes, this means that Nike’s net worth is the true “value” of the company in the sense that it expresses the actual value collectively held by shareholders. Of course, various accounting methods can alter the amount of net worth that a company actually reports, so shareholders’ equity is not necessarily the definitive guide to a company’s valuation.

Nike Founders: Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight

Nike was originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports when it was founded by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight. The two co-founders met at the University of Oregon, where Bowerman was the track-and-field coach and Knight was one of his students. Ultimately, while at Stanford, Knight conceived of the idea to make high-quality shoes overseas, capitalizing on lower production costs, whereas Bowerman was back in Oregon working on shaving ounces of weight off shoes to make runners faster. By 1964, Knight and Bowerman began importing Japanese track shoes, with Bowerman handling the improvements and Knight managing sales.

Key Product Lines Contributing To Nike Revenue

As a multinational company, Nike Inc. has a broad range of products and brands, but the Nike Brand division, which includes brand equivalents like Jordan Brand and Nike Kids, contributes the most revenue:

• Nike Brand Revenue: $44.436 billion

  • Geographic Operating Segments (North America, Europe/Middle East/Africa, Greater China, Asia Pacific/Latin America): $5.995 billion

    • Footwear: $29.143 billion

    • Apparel: $13.567 billion

    • Equipment: $1.624 billion

  • Global Brand Divisions (licensing and other revenue not included in geographic operating segment): $102 million

Here’s a look at Nike Inc.’s total revenue for 2022:

• Nike Inc. Total Revenue: $46.710 billion

  • Nike Brand: $44.436

  • Converse: $2.346 billion

  • Corporate: $72 million

Footwear is by far the most important segment to Nike, contributing over 62% of the company’s entire revenue for the latest fiscal year.

North America accounts for 41% of Nike Brand revenues and is the company’s largest market. Wholesale revenues comprise almost 57% of total Nike Brand revenues. Nike Direct accounts for 42% and Global Brands Divisions accounts for the remaining 1%.

Current Top Nike Shareholders

The top 10 shareholders of Nike stock are all asset managers. Institutional shareholders account for 84.36% of outstanding Nike shares.

Here’s the list of Nike’s top 10 institutional shareholders:

1. The Vanguard Group, 8.44% of shares

2. BlackRock Fund Advisors, 7.13% of shares

3. State Street Corp., 4.46% of shares

4. AllianceBernstein L.P., 2.13% of shares

5. Bank of New York Mellon Corp., 1.82% of shares

6. FMR LLC, 1.80% of shares

7. Geode Capital Management LLC, 1.74% of shares

8. T. Rowe Price Associates Inc., 1.61% of shares

9. JP Morgan Chase & Co., 1.59% of shares

10. Morgan Stanley, 1.46% of shares

Anyone invested in mutual funds likely owns a piece of Nike. Here’s a look at what percentage of the company is owned by popular mutual funds:

1. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund, 2.90% of shares

2. Vanguard 500 Index Fund, 2.20% of shares

3. SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, 1.09% of shares

4. Fidelity 500 Index Fund, 1.05% of shares

5. Vanguard Specialized-Dividend Growth Fund, 0.89% of shares

6. IShares Core S&P 500 ETF, 0.87% of shares

7. Vanguard Growth Index Fund, 0.80% of shares

8. Vanguard Institutional Index Fund, 0.75% of shares

9. Advisors Inner Circle Fund-Edgewood Growth Fund, 0.63% of shares

10. Vanguard Specialized-Dividend Appreciation Index Fund, 0.62% of shares

How Does the Future Look for Nike?

Nike is the world’s largest designer, distributor and marketer of athletic footwear and apparel. Its lucrative endorsement deals with famous athletes ranging from Michael Jordan to Tiger Woods has kept the company current and popular the world over. Companies that are the top names in their industry have usually gotten there for a reason, and it can be unwise to bet against them. But companies are valued on more than reputation and ubiquity. Earnings and current valuation play important roles in whether or not a stock is a good investment. So the question is, how is Nike doing now?

Judging by its most recent earnings report, Nike remains the top dog in its industry. For its fourth fiscal quarter of 2022, which ended May 31, Nike exceeded revenue and profit expectations, helped by steady demand for sneakers and apparel. Earnings per share fell 3%, to $0.90, compared to the same period last year. Despite strong demand for its products, Nike has faced challenges such as higher transportation costs and inventory obsolescence reserves in Greater China, due to ongoing pandemic shutdowns.

Looking ahead, Nike’s board of directors has authorized a four-year $18 billion stock repurchase program to replace the previous $15 billion program — a sign the company has significant cash reserves, although the program doesn’t obligate Nike to purchase a certain amount of stock.

Should I Invest In Nike?

Investing in one particular stock requires not just an analysis of the financials of the company itself but also an understanding of your own personal financial situation. Your investment objectives, time horizon and risk tolerance all play a role in whether or not you should invest in any individual stocks at all, let alone Nike in particular. To help you understand the pros and cons of these types of investments, GOBankingRates suggests that you work with a fiduciary financial advisor.

At the present time, the analyst consensus is modestly bullish on Nike. Shares actually fell slightly following the most recent earnings release, despite the revenue and profit surprise. The consensus rating on Nike from 37 analysts is a 2.1 out of 5, indicating “buy,” with an average price target of $140.10 in a range of $96, which is lower than the current price. Seven rated it a “strong buy” and the remaining 12 rated it a “buy.” Seventeen of the analysts gave a “hold” rating, and one rated it “underperform.”

As an investor, you should be aware that Nike is often a controversial company and the subject of various boycotts. In 2018, the company came under fire for featuring former quarterback Colin Kaepernick in one of its ads, sparking a boycott — although the ad itself later won an Emmy. Nike has also faced consumer boycotts for its treatment of overseas workers. In addition, it prompted outcry for threatening to cancel its sponsorship of Olympic champion Alysia Montano in the event she became pregnant, but Nike ultimately revised its maternity policy to guarantee pay and bonuses, according to Ethical Consumer.

As a company that relies on marketing and image to help promote the sales of its products, these and other incidents are something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, product boycotts are never good for sales, and they tend to sour investor sentiment. On the other hand, publicity can help keep a company relevant, current and in the public eye, even if it is temporarily damaging. The point is that as an investor, you should be aware of the likelihood that Nike will continue to make headlines, and you should factor this in to your overall assessment of the stock.

Daria Uhlig contributed to the reporting for this article.

Information is accurate as of July 1, 2022.

Methodology: The GOBankingRates Evaluation assesses a company’s net worth based on the company’s total assets, total liabilities, and revenue and net income from the last three years. Base value is established by subtracting total liabilities from total assets from the company’s last full fiscal year. Income value is established by taking the average of the revenue from the last three full fiscal years, plus 10 times the average of the net profits from the last three full fiscal years, and then calculating the average of those two figures. The final GOBankingRates Evaluation number is the sum of the base value and the income value.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: How Much Is Nike Worth and Is It Worth Buying?