Nike beats expectations with $663.3m profit
Nike has brought in fourth-quarter earnings slightly ahead of market expectations, in what chairman and co-founder Phil Knight says are his swansong results.
For the year to the end of May, Nike earned $663.3m (€668.6m), or $2.44 per share, up 12% from 2001.
But in its fourth quarter alone the company earned $208.4m (€210m), or 77 cents per share, beating the consensus forecast of 75 cents per share.
In the same period last year, Nike earned $162.7m (€163.9m), or 60 cents per share.
Analysts says the growth coming out of a recession was higher than expected, with revenue up 4% to $2.68bn (€2.7bn) for 2002, including an 8% rise in the fourth quarter.
"In the environment we're dealing with, that's pretty impressive, and I think it shows the strength of the brand," says Robert Drbul of Lehman Brothers.
But John Shanley of Wells Fargo Securities says Nike is stronger in Europe than the US, where it has found its primary market of teenage boys has been slow to respond to its more expensive basketball shoes.
Shanley says flat consumer spending in the US means Nike and other shoemakers are in a market share battle.
"It's tougher to get momentum going when you're basically just trading shoe wall space with your competitors," he says.
Future orders are up 12% for both Europe and Asia, but just 3% for the US.
