Forensic Analysis · General / Diversified · as of Aug 11, 2026

Nike, Inc. (NKE)

A forensic read on Nike, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.

A · High-quality, not compounding

Forensic grade

Safe

Financial health

5.5

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

20.1

P / E (ttm)

20.9%

ROE

$62.1B

Market cap

3.90%

Dividend yield

0.2%

Revenue growth

This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.

Nike, Inc. earns an A (High-quality, not compounding) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 5.5, placing it in the Safe zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).

What the filings flag

+10.6%

FY2025→FY2026

Accruals ratio (% of NOA). Net operating assets grew +10.6% relative to their own average in FY2026 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by receivables up +26% against revenue +0%. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by 2% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.

117% of FCF

FY2026

Shareholder returns. Returned $2.6B to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026 — 117% of free cash flow, but 89% of operating cash flow. Returns run ahead of free cash flow because the business is also funding heavy growth capex (usually debt-financed); the payout itself is covered by operating cash — sustainable as long as that spending is genuine expansion, not upkeep. Counting the $715M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 150%.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$46.40B

Revenue Growth YoY+0.2%

Revenue CAGR (3yr)-3.2%

Net Margin6.7%

Free Cash Flow$2.18B

Return on Equity20.9%

Debt / Equity0.53x

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 11, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.