Nike (NKE) has been on a long run. Its journey began 61 years ago, and the company went public in 1980. Its price per share back then, split adjusted, was about one-third of a penny. Now, 45 years after the IPO, the company has changed the way we play and turned “sneakers” into a style.
But recent years haven’t been as kind to shares. NKE stock is down to the $70 level from $180 just four years ago, due to a combination of competitive, distribution, and management issues.
After its quarterly earnings report, which showed a beat on earnings per share and revenue, analyst price targets are useless. They range from $38 to $120, telling us little about where Nike stock is headed next. The average “Moderate Buy” rating from analysts also isn’t helpful.
Like an NBA player alerting officials that he’s ready to enter the game, NKE’s quarter aims to show investors it’s back in the competition.
But at 41x forward earnings, even if the stock might finally be done selling off, Nike is rich. Not Michael Jordan rich, but far from cheap.
As I see it, owning an expensive stock in long-term turnaround mode in a market that could punish it just for not having both of the letters “A-I” in its corporate name, is an opportunity to use options alongside NKE share positions.
In other words, as the title here says, it’s OK to “just do it,” but perhaps use a collar to “do” NKE. But there’s a twist in this one, as I’ll explain after reviewing the charts.
Starting with the daily, we can see the stock has been dunked on recently, off double-digits since late August. NKE stock has now given back the entire extension of its big up move that occurred after last quarter’s earnings release. That alone calls for some risk management, as the stock looks far from washed out.
The weekly takes that negative vibe to another level. Like, New York Mets in September 2025 bad. The last time that Percentage Price Oscillator (PPO) indicator looked like this, the stock rolled over like an injured NFL wide receiver’s ankle, from $135 to less than half that. This is now a risk management doubleheader situation.
However, time frame is everything, especially in this world where zero DTE options players and buy-and-hold types invest side by side. So this monthly chart below hints at the makings of a very long-term bottom in NKE stock.
