Nike (NKE) Q1 FY2027: EPS Beats, But Revenue Miss and Weak Guidance Send Shares to a 13-Year Low

$NKEWhat Happened

Nike’s fiscal Q1 2027 revenue came in at $11.21 billion, down 4% on a reported basis and 5% currency-neutral year-over-year, missing the roughly $11.33 billion analysts expected. Adjusted diluted EPS of $0.48 beat the $0.44 consensus by about 9%, helped in part by gross margin that actually expanded 60 basis points to 42.8% despite the top-line pressure. The headline story was Greater China: revenue there fell 22% on a reported basis and 26% currency-neutral, with footwear down 22% (-26% currency-neutral) and apparel down 23% (-27% currency-neutral). North America was the bright spot, up 2% with apparel sales climbing 6%, while EMEA slipped 5% currency-neutral and Asia Pacific & Latin America was roughly flat.

Alongside results, Nike unveiled “Pace,” a new restructuring and operating-model overhaul targeting roughly $2.5 billion in cumulative savings through fiscal 2031, with about $1.0 billion in pre-tax restructuring charges over that span ($0.3 billion already booked in fiscal 2026, another $0.3 billion expected in fiscal 2027). The plan folds Greater China into a more centralized structure, ending the region’s prior operating independence, and includes supply-chain modernization and a new campus in India. CFO Dave Denton was candid about the quarter, saying results were “below both our expectations and our potential.” For fiscal 2027, Nike guided to revenue declining in the high single digits and adjusted EPS of $1.15 to $1.35 — well short of the roughly $1.69 analysts had modeled before the print.

Why the Stock Fell on an EPS Beat

Shares fell sharply in after-hours trading Wednesday night, at one point down as much as 9-10%, before paring some of the loss as Thursday’s regular session progressed; the stock ultimately closed Thursday around $35, a fresh 13-year low, down roughly 9% from Wednesday’s close. The market’s verdict was clear: a modest EPS beat built partly on cost discipline doesn’t offset a revenue miss, an accelerating China decline, and guidance that implies the turnaround is taking longer than Wall Street had penciled in. Short interest in NKE had already been building steadily through 2026 heading into the print, leaving the stock with little benefit of the doubt once the China and guidance numbers came into view.

Analyst Reaction

Goldman Sachs called the Asia-Pacific supply-chain readout “negative to mixed,” flagging deepening China restructuring as a near-term earnings headwind and cutting EPS estimates across fiscal 2027-2029. Bank of America’s Lorraine Hutchinson downgraded Nike to Underperform, citing limited visibility into when the turnaround actually shows up in the numbers. Truist’s note was blunt about the China trend specifically, pointing to the 26% decline there and recommending investors “stay on the sidelines given the challenges across multiple business areas.” All four major revisions landed in the high-$20s to low-$30s, well below the stock’s pre-earnings average target in the mid-$40s.

Why It Matters

Nike’s print confirms the bear case laid out in our original earnings preview: this is a longer and messier turnaround than a single good quarter can fix, and the newly announced Pace restructuring is Nike’s clearest admission yet that the old operating model — especially in China — needed a structural reset, not just a cyclical bounce. It’s also a useful contrast to this week’s other earnings stories: Micron’s AI-driven demand boom and Accenture’s enterprise-spending strength underscore just how uneven this earnings season has been across sectors — booming in AI infrastructure and enterprise tech, struggling in consumer discretionary and China-exposed retail.