Nike CEO joins Tim Cook in betting his own money that the stock is bottoming

By Tomi Kilgore

Elliott Hill spent $1 million to buy Nike's stock on the open market for the first time, a week after board member and Apple CEO Tim Cook made a similar purchase

Nike's stock surged after CEO Elliott Hill disclosed open-market purchases - a week after Apple CEO and board member Tim Cook did the same.

Shares of Nike surged Wednesday after investors in the struggling athletic-gear giant learned that another top insider was spending a lot of his own money to bet that the worst may be behind the company.

The latest disclosure of an insider purchase, this one by Chief Executive Elliott Hill, comes with the stock (NKE) set to extend its record-long yearly losing streak to four years, as the iconic sneaker company has fallen behind its competition and as consumers have pulled back on discretionary spending.

The stock, which jumped 4.2% to pace the S&P 500 index's SPX Wednesday gainers, has tumbled 61.8% during its yearly losing streak.

The company's turnaround plan, which it has been working on for a while, appears to include a back-to-basics approach. Nike lured longtime company veteran Hill out of retirement to take over as CEO last year.

And while Nike said in its latest earnings report earlier this month that it could take some time for the plan to be completed, open-market purchases of the stock by those in the know send a strong message that better times are ahead. The company's latest quarterly filing also provided reason for more optimism.

In a Form 4 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last Tuesday, Nike disclosed that Hill spent $1 million on Dec. 29 to buy 16,388 common shares at an average price of $61.10.

The purchase was coded by the SEC as "P," which is defined as "open market or private purchase" of securities, meaning he spent his own available cash to buy the stock.

While Hill has acquired Nike shares before, none of the previous acquisitions, according to available SEC data going back to 2006, were coded as "P," because they included option grants and the exercising of options.

A week earlier, Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple (AAPL) and a 20-year Nike board member, spent about $3 million of his own money to buy Nike shares on the open market.

Read: Tim Cook did something he hasn't done before - buy Nike's stock on the open market

With Wednesday's gain, Nike's stock has now climbed 11.3% since it closed Dec. 22 at the lowest price since May 6.

The company also filed its 10-Q quarterly report late Tuesday, in which it disclosed performance and inventory position by region.

Stifel analyst Peter McGoldrick said "healthy" levels of inventory in North America substantiated his view that the company's turnaround would be led by its U.S. business.

With the revenue foundation now in place, McGoldrick said he believes "the turnaround is an eventuality," although he can't say when it will happen.

Perhaps he doesn't need to. Cook and Hill appear to have already done that.

-Tomi Kilgore

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12-31-25 1605ET