Nike shares jump as Ackman's return sparks turnaround hopes

By Ananya Mariam Rajesh

(Reuters) - Nike shares gained nearly 4% on Thursday as investors hoped the return of billionaire William Ackman as a stakeholder could spark a turnaround at the sportswear giant that has been battling with strategy missteps and tough competition.

Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management now owns roughly 3 million shares of Nike, amounting to a stake of about 0.19%, a filing showed on Wednesday. He has not revealed any plans for the investment yet.

"He's going to have the ear of the executives at Nike and be able to lend some influence on maybe how to get the ship righted, as it were, for Nike at this point in time to try and find their way back home," said Brian Mulberry, client portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management, which owned $25.79 million worth of Nike shares as of June.

The stock has lost nearly a third of its value this year and the company has forecast a drop in annual sales for fiscal 2025, leading some Wall Street analysts and investors to raise the possibility of a management shake-up including CEO John Donahoe.

When an activist investor comes in, the ultimate goal "will be replacing the person that sits in the corner office," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth.

"And I say that because the template for that has been very clear this week in the form of Starbucks."

Starbucks poached Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol earlier this week, tapping the industry veteran behind the burrito chain's turnaround to revitalize growth at its coffee outlets.

Niccol joining Chipotle in 2018 was also the result of one of Ackman's pressure campaigns that have often led to CEO changes at companies including J.C. Penney and Air Products and Chemicals.

Ackman last invested in Nike in late 2017, around the time when the company was losing market share in North America to a reinvigorated Adidas.

He exited Nike a few months later in 2018, making roughly $100 million in profit by cashing out of the 0.71% stake - a rare passive investment for the billionaire investor.

Analysts and investors hinted on Thursday it might be early days for Ackman's second stint as an investor at Nike and he will need to build a larger stake to make an impact.

Nike's forward price-to-earnings ratio for the next 12 months, a common benchmark for valuing stocks, was 24.26, compared with Adidas' 36.75.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal, Ananya Mariam Rajesh and Granth Vanaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)