NIKE, Inc.

NIKE reported first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue of $11.2 billion, down 4% on a reported basis and 5% on a currency-neutral basis. Gross margin was 42.8%, up 60 basis points year over year, SG&A declined 3%, and EPS was $0.48, down 2%. By geography, Greater China declined 26%, EMEA declined 5%, APLA was flat, and North America grew 2%. For fiscal 2027, management now expects revenue to decline in the high-single-digit range, EBIT to decline by a greater percentage than revenue, and adjusted EPS to be $1.15 to $1.35, excluding about $0.15 of Pace impact. They also said Q2 will face about a 400 basis point revenue headwind from tougher comparisons in EMEA Cyber Week and North America sell-in.

Elliott Hill framed the quarter as proof that NIKE’s “Sport Offense” is working, pointing to high-single-digit growth in Performance and broad strength across Running, Football, Training and Basketball. At the same time, he said Sportswear, Jordan Brand and Greater China need deliberate reset actions, including reducing Dunk volume, restoring Jordan scarcity, and cleaning up China’s digital distribution. His tone was constructive but candid: the company has momentum in the right places, but the turnaround will take time and multiple seasons.

Dave Denton emphasized that the quarter was in line with expectations but below NIKE’s long-term potential. He cited $11.2 billion of revenue, 42.8% gross margin, $0.48 EPS, a 3% SG&A decline, and a strong balance sheet with $8.4 billion in cash and short-term investments and leverage at roughly 2x. He said NIKE returned about $610 million to shareholders through dividends, reiterated the dividend as a major capital-allocation priority, and outlined Pace as a roughly $2.5 billion savings program with about $1 billion of implementation cost plus about $300 million of severance-related costs in fiscal '26.

Analysts pressed management on how much of the weakness in Sportswear, Jordan and China was already known, how much further pain is coming, and when the restructuring would start to help the P&L. Denton said the company’s guidance assumes China gets worse from a revenue perspective for the rest of the year, and that the deliberate actions in those businesses will likely dampen results through the balance of FY27 and into FY28. On Pace, management said the company is already seeing some supply-chain-related gross margin benefit, but most of the savings will come in FY29 and FY30; on the dividend, Denton said NIKE supports maintaining and ultimately growing it over time.