Nike’s late-September earnings release showed a clear beat on both sales and profit. Total Q1 revenue was $11.72 B, up 1% year-over-year; analysts had expected a decline to about $11.0 B businesswire.com reuters.com. On the bottom line, Nike earned $0.49 per share, far above the $0.27 consensus estimate businesswire.com reuters.com. The 1.5-point rise in gross margin to 42.2% was powered by stronger-than-expected wholesale restocking. Indeed, wholesale revenues jumped 7% to $6.8 B businesswire.com. In contrast, Nike’s Direct-to-Consumer sales were down 4% businesswire.com, as Nike cuts promotions and trims excess inventory. Overall profit fell due to higher discounting and tariffs businesswire.com reuters.com, but the upside surprise was a relief to investors who had braced for a downturn.
