"Purchased 4.3 Billion Won Worth of Nike Shares"...The Person Who Boosted the Stock Price in a Day

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 worth several billion won, causing the stock price to surge despite the company's recent poor performance.

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), international media outlets such as MarketWatch reported, citing documents submitted to U.S. securities regulators 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 Nike shares prior to this purchase. With this additional acquisition, his total holdings increased to 105,480 shares.

Jonathan Komp, an analyst at market research firm Baird Equity Research, explained that this transaction is the largest open-market stock purchase by a Nike director or executive. Komp analyzed that Cook's recent purchase "strengthens the management strategy led by Nike CEO Elliott Hill." Although CEO Hill has been striving to recover performance through innovation focused on running and sports, as well as new marketing strategies, there have not yet been any clear results.

Komp added, "CEO Cook maintains a very close relationship with Nike co-founder Phil Knight and has advised on key strategic decisions, including the appointment of CEO Hill."

Nike, which has suffered from poor performance in recent years, reported declining profit margins and decreased sales in China in its quarterly earnings announcements, accelerating the decline in its stock price. However, Nike's share price rose by 4.7% during trading on news of Cook's stock purchase.

Meanwhile, the New York Stock Exchange closed higher across the board on this day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 288.75 points (0.60%) at 48,731.16. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 Index closed up 22.26 points (0.32%) at 6,932.05, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index ended up 51.46 points (0.22%) at 23,613.31. Both the S&P 500 and the Dow set new all-time highs during the session and at the close.

Investors continue to anticipate the so-called "Santa Rally," a phenomenon where stock prices typically rise during the last five trading days of the year and the first two trading days of the new year. This year, the Santa Rally period runs from December 24 to January 5 of next year.