Bill Ackman Stake Sends Nike Jumping

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman built new stakes in Nike (NKE) during the second quarter, according to a regulatory filing, sending shares in the sportswear maker up around 4% in premarket trading.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing showed Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management had built a stake of more than 3 million shares at the end of June worth about $230 million.

Nike Has Been Hit by Falling Sales

Nike has been struggling with falling sales amid a slowing Chinese economy and rising competition from upstarts like Hoka.

Its shares are down around 28% so far this year but jumped on Wednesday as a Bernstein Research analyst affirmed a bullish call on the company. Bernstein’s Aneesha Sherman reiterated a “buy” rating and $112 price target on Nike’s stock.

In an interview with CNBC last month, Sherman said that Nike has “been hiring and investing in R&D and putting more marketing dollars behind some of their launches and rebuilding partnerships with retailers and we are in the trough where we haven’t seen any of that impacting sales yet.”

Ackman, meanwhile, recently halted plans for an planned initial public offering (IPO) of a closed-end fund, after dramatically reducing the deal’s size.