Nike Just Did It

Having suffered a little recently on the heels of retailer concerns, Nike – the best performer in The Dow this year – is surging back towards all-time record highs after unleashing a new share buyback program(upping the limit from $8bn to $12bn), a stock split and a dividend boost.

*NIKE SETS $12B SHARE BUYBACK, 2-FOR-1 STOCK SPLIT, BOOSTS DIV

*NIKE SEES CURRENT $8B SHARE BUYBACK COMPLETED BEFORE FY16 END

*NIKE, 14% BOOST IN QTRLY DIV & 2-FOR-1 STOCK SPLIT

Statement:

NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) announced today that its Board of Directors approved a new four-year, $12 billion program to repurchase shares of NIKE’s Class B Common Stock. The Company anticipates that the current $8 billion share repurchase program will be completed before the end of fiscal 2016, and the new program will commence upon the completion of the current program.*

Repurchases under the Company’s new program will be made in open market or privately negotiated transactions in compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission Rule 10b-18, subject to market conditions, applicable legal requirements, and other relevant factors. This share repurchase plan does not obligate the Company to acquire any particular amount of common stock, and it may be suspended at any time at the Company’s discretion. NIKE had approximately 678 million shares of Class B Common Stock outstanding as of November 16, 2015.

“In a growing sports industry, NIKE is the clear leader,” said Mark Parker, President and CEO of NIKE, Inc.“We are built for growth, while also staying committed to creating shareholder value over the long term. We’ve proven it time and again, having returned over $23 billion to shareholders over the last 14 years through share repurchases and dividends. Moving forward, we see even greater potential for NIKE as we continue to unlock new markets, new experiences and new products.”

The Board of Directors also declared a quarterly cash dividend on the Company’s outstanding Class A and Class B Common Stock of $0.32 per share, on a pre-split basis, payable on January 4, 2016 to shareholders of record at the close of business on December 9, 2015. The dividend represents a 14 percent increase over the previous pre-split quarterly rate of $0.28 per share. This is the fourteenth year in a row the Company has increased its annual dividend, over which time the dividend has increased by a factor of more than 10.