Nike assumed with a Neutral at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler assumed coverage of Nike with a Neutral rating and $80 price target. As Nike accelerates planned reductions in key classic franchises, competition in the footwear space “isn’t getting any easier,” the analyst tells investors. With 22M shares short and multiple sell-side downgrades after the fiscal Q4 print, “sentiment on what’s usually a core holding in the consumer space looks washed out” and there could be interesting catalysts ahead, but the firm thinks Nike could be facing a multi-year reset of the business that is longer than the handful of quarters the company’s FY25 guidance is based on, the analyst added.