Sterne Agee Reiterates Buy and PT of $100 on Nike

Sterne Agee reiterated its Buy rating on Nike NKE. At the same time, Sterne Agee left its price target unchanged at $100 after revising the company's 2012 earnings per share estimates upwards. In a research report published today, Sterne Agee stressed its belief that global events like London Olympics and Brazil World Cup will provide enough boost to the company to outweight the short-term margin pressures. In the report, Sterne Agee states, "Maintaining '11 EPS estimate of $4.45 and tweaking '12 EPS estimate from $4.78 to $4.83. We believe FX and upcoming global events will drive the increase... SG&A will likely ramp in BH12 in preparation for the Olympics in London and the European Championships and then later for the World Cup and Olympics in Brazil. In our view, the aforementioned global events, plans of a China business reaching $4B by 2015 and an evolving innovative product and marketing platform keep us very positive on the name despite the short-term margin pressures." On Friday, Nike added 1.02% to its value to close the week at $81.11.