Shares in NIKE, Inc. (NYSE: NKE) are falling in early market trading after the company announced its Q3 2025 results yesterday. Currently, NKE shares are down around 8% as investors digest not just the company’s most recent earnings results but the statements the shoe giant made about its current Q4, which ends in May. Here’s what you need to know about Nike’s stock price drop.
Not as bad as expected
Yesterday, Nike announced its results for its third quarter of fiscal 2025, which ended on February 28. The quarter is arguably the most important in Nike’s fiscal calendar year as it encompasses the month of December when shoppers are out and about buying gifts for the holiday season. Unfortunately, Nike’s results were down in several key categories during Q3:
- Revenue: $11.3 billion — down 9%
- NIKE Direct revenues: $4.7 billion — down 12%
- Wholesale revenues: $6.2 billion — down 7%
- Diluted earnings per share (EPS): 54 cents
Now, there are some small highlights to the company’s earnings announcements, as noted by CNBC. Nike posted an EPS of 54 cents for the quarter. Though that is down from the EPS of 77 cents for the quarter a year earlier, it still beat estimates of an EPS of 29 cents for Q3 2025. Likewise, while its revenue of $11.3 billion was down from its revenue of $12.4 billion a year earlier, its Q3 2025 revenue beat consensus estimates of $11.01 billion.
In other words, while Nike did worse than the year ago quarter, the company did do as badly as some analysts had anticipated.
Q4 warnings rattle investors
However, despite beating estimates, Nike stock is still trading much lower this morning. Yesterday, the company’s share price closed at $71.86, but today, the company’s stock price is down around 8% as of the time of this writing to below $66.50 per share.
The main reason for that drop seems to be investor jitters over the company’s warnings about its current Q4, which ends in May. As noted by CNBC, Nike has warned that it is in for a rough Q4. Why? The company cited declining consumer confidence and President Trump’s tariffs on China as two main factors.
Since Trump took office in January, the stock market has tumbled, and concerns have increased as experts—and increasingly consumers—fear that the president’s policies are negatively impacting the economy. Trump has initiated a number of tariffs—or threats of tariffs— against America’s largest trading partners, including Mexico, Canada, and China.
Tariffs of as much as 20% have already gone into effect against China—and that’s a problem for Nike. CNBC says that around 24% of Nike’s suppliers and manufacturers are in China. If there is now a 20% tariff on those goods imported into the country, Nike will either need to eat the cost, find a way to push the costs onto its suppliers, or pass those costs onto consumers.
This means that Nike could take a hit to its margins, or the company could be forced to raise prices, which may alienate already cash-strapped consumers. Many Nike products are considered discretionary goods—consumers don’t need them to survive. And if the economy continues to sour and prices continue to rise, consumers will reduce their spending on discretionary goods in order to afford necessities.
In a conference call with analysts, CNBC says Nike CFO Matt Friend addressed Nike’s current challenges directly, stating the company is “navigating through several external factors that create uncertainty in the current operating environment, including geopolitical dynamics, new tariffs, volatile foreign exchange rates and tax regulations, as well as the impact of this uncertainty and other macro factors on consumer confidence.”
Nike says it expects its sales to be down in Q4, with CNBC reporting that Friend said sales will likely be at the “low end” of the “mid-teens range.”
Shares down more than 34%
Not only are Nike shares down today after the company’s Q3 earnings and Q4 warnings, Nike stock is down for both the 2025 calendar year and down over the past 12 months.
Since the beginning of 2025, Nike shares have lost around 13% of its value as of the time of this writing. And over the past 12 months, NKE shares have declined more than 34%.
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