Nike Beats Targets, Shares Climb

Updated from Tuesday, Sept. 29

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Nike's (NKE) stock is still running up a day after the footwear and athletic apparel company reported better-than-expected quarterly results.

Shares spiked 8% to $64.80 in Wednesday afternoon trading, as it exceeded Wall Street's profit and futures expectations.

Sell Nike!: Against the Grain

In the first quarter, the company earned $513 million, or $1.04 a share, compared with $510.5 million, or $1.03 a share, in the year-ago period. Analysts expected Nike to earn 97 cents a share.

Revenue, however, sank 11.6% to $4.8 billion from $5.43 billion a year earlier. The biggest sales declines were seen in Europe, with Western Europe down 18% and Central and Eastern Europe off 33%. North American revenue slipped 5% to $1.8 billion.

Worldwide futures orders, a key indicator for the company, dropped 6% to $6.2 billion, but excluding currency charges, the figure was down by 4%. Analysts were calling for a drop of 5%, excluding exchange rates.

In fact, solid futures orders led Sterne Agee to upgrade the company to neutral from sell.

Inventories, meanwhile, fell 7% compared with last year's period.

While Nike forecasts a decline in revenues for the full fiscal year, it expects sales to improve in the second half.

-- Reported by Jeanine Poggi in New York

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