In an interview with CNBC, Hill highlighted the complexity involved in turning around the fortunes of a company like Nike.
Nike Inc. (NKE) CEO Elliott Hill reportedly stated on Monday that the turnaround efforts of the world’s largest supplier of athletic shoes will “take a while.”
In an interview with CNBC, Hill highlighted the complexity involved in turning around the fortunes of a company like Nike, adding that the sportswear giant’s progress won’t be linear but that the company is on “the path” to post mid-to-high single-digit revenue growth with strong margins.
“It’s gonna take a while. It’s not linear. But it is a portfolio, and ultimately the goal is to have the entire portfolio all working together to drive the revenue and the profit that we hope to deliver for all of our investors,” Hill said in the interview.
Nike’s shares were down 0.49% in Monday’s opening trade. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around the company trended in the ‘extremely bullish’ territory.
Hill took over as Nike’s CEO in September 2024 from John Donahoe, and since then, he has undone many of the strategic changes implemented by the latter. This includes bringing wholesalers back into the mix, rather than relying on the direct-to-consumer strategy implemented by his predecessor.
Hill acknowledged in the interview that while the digital commerce strategy worked during the COVID pandemic, the same strategy started hurting Nike once things normalized because “there’s a certain set of consumers that want to shop choice, and they want to shop across each of the different channels of distribution.”
Last week, analysts at KeyBanc upgraded Nike to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Sector Weight’ after the company’s “solid” first-quarter (Q1) results, according to TheFly. The firm also raised its price target to $90, implying an upside of over 26% from Nike’s share price of $71.21 at the time of writing.
While acknowledging some near-term “choppiness” from President Donald Trump’s tariffs, KeyBanc said Nike’s strategic resets across the innovation pipeline and marketplace have positioned the sportswear giant to return to sustainable growth.
NKE stock is down 5% year-to-date and 13% over the past 12 months.
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