Nike Inc., the world’s largest shoe maker, on Thursday said fiscal first-quarter profit slid 13 percent as stock option expenses and sales costs outstripped revenue growth, but results nevertheless topped Wall Street’s expectations.
For the quarter ended Aug. 31, net income dropped to $377.2 million, or $1.47 per share, from $432.3 million, or $1.61 per share, in the prior-year period.
Nike said the recent quarter included $40.8 million in stock-option costs, which lowered per-share earnings per 16 cents. Excluding stock option expense, first-quarter net income declined 3 percent.
Revenue rose 9 percent to $4.19 billion, from $3.86 billion a year ago. By region, U.S. revenue climbed 6 percent to $1.6 billion; European region sales grew 4 percent to $1.3 billion and sales in the Asia Pacific and Americas regions jumped 13 percent each, to $518.4 million and $242.5 million, respectively.
On average, analysts polled by Thomson Financial forecast earnings of $1.42 per share, including stock options, and sales of $4.16 billion.
Sales costs during the quarter rose 11 percent to $2.34 billion from $2.11 billion.
Nike said future orders scheduled for delivery between September and January totaled $5.2 billion, up 6 percent from the same period last year.
