China demand sees Nike boost profits despite the rising price of commodities
NIKE set a blistering pace with its fourth-quarter results yesterday, seeing its profits race 14 per cent and future orders bouncing 12 per cent.
It was buoyed by bumper demand in China and emerging markets, where its high-end sportswear is highly sort after. This offset pressure from rising commodity and labour costs.
Nike shares gained 4.5 per cent to hit $85.25 (£53.50) in after-hours trading. It reported profits of to $594m, compared to $522m a year ago, on sales up 11 per cent to $5.8bn.
Futures orders – a closely watched measure of sales growth – came in ahead of Wall Street estimates. Orders for June through November jumped 15 per cent to $10.3bn. Excluding currency effects, orders rose 12 per cent.
Barclays Capital analyst Robert Drbul expected futures orders to be up around nine per cent in constant dollars. Matt Arnold, an analyst at Edward Jones, was expecting future orders to be up at least eight per cent.