Nike has a rosy future ahead over the long term, according to JPMorgan. The bank's analysts upgraded shares of the athletic footwear and apparel manufacturer to an overweight rating from neutral. Analyst Matthew Boss hiked his price target to $93 per share from $64. Shares of Nike have added less than 1% this year. Boss' new target is approximately 18% higher than the Friday closing price of $76.27 per share. NKE YTD mountain NKE YTD chart "We see the model at an inflection for revenue growth to re-accelerate into 2H26/FY27 following several quarters of franchise product lifecycle management & inventory liquidation headwinds," Boss wrote. "Further, we see opportunity for NKE to recapture over 500bps of operating margin erosion on improved full-price selling & reception to new product innovation and as NKE begins to leverage on SG & A expenses with an inflection to topline growth." The analyst believes Nike's multiyear recovery path is based on several key parts. One of the parts is global inventory and sales growth finally "on track" to alignment by the end of the second quarter in 2026. Meanwhile, Boss also expects momentum to accelerate with Nike's global wholesale orderbooks, especially as the company focuses on scaling its product innovation. "Our work points to initial wholesale partner feedback to Spring/ Summer '26 product as 'very favorable,' with NKE recently hosting partners on campus for a view of innovation in the product pipeline," he wrote. Over the long term, the analyst also sees ample room for Nike to recover its operating margins. "Looking beyond FY28, we note 200-300bps of incremental operating margin expansion to fully bridge NKE's profitability back to historical pre-pandemic levels of 12-13% (vs. our FY28 10.0% margin estimate)," he added.
