New Nike CEO Sets Sights On Innovation, Ups Marketing Expenses To '10% Of Sales'

Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) has struggled in recent years.

New CEO Elliott Hill discussed his attempted turnaround of the Beaverton, Oregon-based company with Wall Street analysts on Thursday. Here’s what analysts published after the meeting:

• Goldman Sachs analyst Brooke Roach, who holds a Buy rating with a price target of $91.
• JPMorgan analyst Matthew R. Boss, who holds a Neutral rating with a price target of $73.

Main Takeaways: Roach says the conversation centered around Nike’s company culture, sports, innovation and marketing.

“Management highlighted innovation remains a key priority and that they are comfortable with the team in place and the speed at which they are working… By category, the company spoke to prioritizing running (given emerging competitive threats), followed by football, basketball, training and sportswear,” the analyst said.

Hill and company executives also said that they plan to increase marketing expenses to around 10% of sales. Executives also plan to turn around the company’s culture, noting that previous management focused too much on technology rather than sports.

Boss noted that management commentary emphasized that plans are long-term in nature. Nike plans to liquidate inventory through price decreases, which will compress margins in the short term. Later, the company plans to transition its business model to prioritize full-price items instead of discounts.

The analyst also noted other geographic headwinds.

“…we see continued revenue pressure into 1H26 in particular associated with the "annualization" of strategic actions across
different geographies (= JPMe FY26 revenues -2.4% Y/Y < Street +1.7% Y/Y), with N. America and Greater China (= combined 56% of sales mix) in our view the furthest behind on rebalancing the product portfolio and repositioning the Nike Digital segment to full price,” Boss said.

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