Tim Cook, Apple CEO, Purchases Additional Nike Shares
Serving as Nike Outside Director Since 2005
Apple CEO Tim Cook recently purchased additional shares of Nike, which has been experiencing sluggish performance, worth several billion won, causing the stock price to surge.
Team Cook, CEO of Apple, is speaking at an event held on September 9 last year at the headquarters in Cupertino, California. Photo by AFP Yonhap News
On December 24 (local time), MarketWatch and other foreign media outlets reported, citing documents submitted to the U.S. securities regulator the previous day, that CEO Cook purchased 50,000 shares of Nike at $58.97 per share on December 22. The total purchase amount reached approximately $2.95 million (about 4.3 billion won). Cook has served as an outside director at Nike since 2005 and already held shares in the company. With this additional purchase, his total holdings have increased to 105,480 shares.
Jonathan Komp, an analyst at the market research firm Baird Equity Research, explained that this transaction is the largest open market purchase by a Nike director or executive. Komp analyzed that Cook’s stock purchase "serves to bolster the management strategy of Nike CEO Elliott Hill." CEO Hill has been striving to restore performance through innovation focused on running and sports, as well as new marketing strategies, but has yet to deliver clear results.
Komp added, "CEO Cook maintains a very close relationship with Nike co-founder Phil Knight and has provided advice during major strategic decision-making processes, including the appointment of CEO Hill."
Nike, which has suffered from sluggish performance in recent years, reported weakened profit margins and declining sales in China in its quarterly earnings releases, accelerating the drop in its stock price. However, upon news of CEO Cook’s stock purchase, Nike’s share price rose by 4.7% during intraday trading on this day.
Meanwhile, the New York Stock Exchange closed higher across the board on this day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished at 48,731.16, up 288.75 points (0.60%) from the previous session. The Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index closed at 6,932.05, up 22.26 points (0.32%), and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ended at 23,613.31, up 51.46 points (0.22%). Both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones reached all-time highs for both intraday and closing prices.
Investors continue to anticipate the so-called "Santa Rally." The Santa Rally typically refers to the phenomenon of rising stock prices during the last five trading days of the year and the first two trading days of the new year. This year, it spans from December 24 to January 5 of the following year.
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