Nike (NKE) earnings Q3 2026
A Nike logo is displayed at a Nike store in Austin, Texas, on February 5, 2026.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
Nike It beat Wall Street’s quarterly earnings and revenue expectations on Tuesday; Growth in the key North American market helped offset the hit from tariffs and a new sales decline in its China business.
Here’s how the company’s performance in the third fiscal quarter compared to the forecasts of analysts surveyed by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: 28 cents expected versus 35 cents
- Revenues: 11.24 billion dollars is expected against the expectation of 11.28 billion dollars
The sneaker giant continues to work on a tremendous transformation under the management of CEO Elliott Hill. About a year and a half into his tenure, Hill made progress repairing parts of the business, but it was clear that it would take time for the entire company to evolve, given the retailer’s scale and complexity.
Nike’s Greater China market, which has been a pain point for the company in recent quarters, saw revenue fall 7% in the quarter to $1.62 billion. Even so, that total beat analyst estimates by $1.50 billion, according to StreetAccount.
Nike’s largest market in North America continued to show steady growth, with revenue rising 3% to $5.03 billion. That was nearly below Wall Street’s expectation of $5.04 billion.
Overall, Nike’s sales for its third quarter were about flat from the prior year at $11.28 billion.
Its net income for the period fell 35% to $520 million from $794 million in the previous year.
This decline occurred as Nike’s gross margin fell 1.3 percentage points to 40.2%. The company said the decline was “primarily due to higher tariffs in North America.”
Throughout the turnaround, the company warned that progress would not be linear and that some parts of the business would evolve faster than others, making it difficult for investors to predict how long the recovery would take.
Nike’s comeback attempt was already going through a difficult time as the global trade war disrupted efforts to boost profitability and boost sales from inflation-weary consumers. But the athletics company will now have to fight a new war in the Middle East, which has already led to rising gas prices and is expected to push consumer prices even higher; This can push shoppers to forego nice-to-haves like new clothes and shoes to save money elsewhere.
