Nike price target raised to $82 from $79 at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley analyst Alex Straton raised the firm’s price target on Nike to $82 from $79 and keeps an Equal Weight rating on the shares. The firm expects in-line Q1 results and for Q2 guidance to be set about in-line with the Street view, with potential downside risk to sales and margins offset by SG&A control. The firm also suspects a fiscal year guidance reduction is upcoming as the embedded second half improvement “continues to strike us as optimistic,” China and freight headwinds have worsened since last quarter, and the new CEO appointment “makes for a ‘pass.'” A fundamental inflection “feels a ways off,” but management change and potential strategy updates against possibly troughed valuation keeps the firm Equal Weight rated, the analyst tells investors in a fiscal Q1 preview.