You don’t see this often. Lots of analysts issue buy or hold recommendations but an actual sell recommendation is rare. The downgrade was based on Footlocker’s abysmal results. The issue is that 70% of Footlocker’s inventory comes from Nike.
Nike rarely misses earnings estimates. Managing earnings is one thing Nike does very well. Makes me wonder if there’s going to be an uncommon and unpleasant earnings surprise in June. Wouldn’t surprise me because Nike is currently in one of its “uninspired product” cycles. Every five or so years our product pipeline becomes stale. If you’ve been to BES lately you no doubt would have noticed.