Stocks finish lower Friday, but Nike receives a rise in after-hours earnings

Friday was a tricky day for the stock market, as investors had to deal with a wild mix of factors affecting trading. Stock and index income contracts and options, Nasdaq-100 Index re-creation, and additions will be completed Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) to the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^ GSPC) brought all wildcards into the regular trading day. By the end of the session, the Dow Jones business average (DJINDICES: ^ DJI), S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^ IXIC) they were all down, but finished well off their worst stages of the day.

Database: Yahoo! Finance.

It is very unusual for a stock to report earnings after the Friday afternoon close, especially when that reporting date matches the expiration date of popular options. However, that is exactly what it is Nike (NYSE: NKE) did this week, and investors received some good news from the athletic clothing and footwear giant.

Nike is just doing it

Nike stock was up nearly 4% after hours, after falling just over 2% in the regular session. Nike’s fiscal results in the second quarter gave investors much of what they had hoped to see and represented another positive sign that the consumer economy is still running strong.

Nike reported strong growth in revenue. Total sales climbed 9% from the previous year’s levels, with better top results from across its geographic regions. The Greater China area did well, with sales jumping 24%.

As most investors would expect, Nike’s direct-to-consumer sales performed exceptionally well. Overall, Nike direct sales rose 32% year-over-year, while Nike-brand-specific digital sales rose 84% from previous year’s results. Even with lower revenues from its wholesale business and from Nike-owned retail outlets, the athletic giant was able to sustain itself well overall.

That hard performance fell to the baseline. Nike’s earnings per share were up 11% from last year’s fiscal quarter last year.

In terms of balance, Nike had a lot of good things to say. Account rates were down 2% from a year earlier, returning to what the company called “healthy global rates.” The athletic vendor reported a cash balance and short-term investments of $ 11.8 billion, largely due to a timely capital increase in the bond market. Including currently undrawn credit facilities, Nike has $ 15.8 billion in liquidity – sufficient resources to deal with the potential imminent imminent imminent release of COVID-19 pandemics.

There were a few things left to do for Nike

Just about the same as Nike it was not it was made to mention in his employment news when he would start repurchasing stock again. Nike pays a very small share with a yield of less than 1%, since the majority of its capital return to shareholders has come in the form of stock purchases. For example, before Nike halted the purchases, the company had bought back $ 4 billion under their current repurchase program. That still leaves $ 11 billion left to use Nike when it chooses.

Most importantly, however, buyers are still willing to pay for premium products from their favorite vendors. With many customers in financial distress, the fact that Nike has maintained its growing revenue is a testament to the magnitude of its results. That should help Nike keep on climbing well into the future.