NKE: Nike Stock Sprints 8% After CEO Steps Down, New Boss Boasts Big Plans

Shares of sportswear household name are down 24% this year. But the new CEO, a veteran in the company, has big turnaround plans.

• Nike stock NKE jumped 8% in after-hours trading Thursday following the company’s surprise news that CEO John Donahoe is stepping down from the role. In his place, the athletic apparel giant will put company veteran Elliott Hill, effective October 14. The shakeup in the upper echelons of the world’s largest sportswear maker aims to win consumers back after rising competition and ill-fated sales strategies have threatened to knock Nike out of the lead.
• Elliott Hill boasts more than 32 years of pacing around the Nike halls (in his Nikes?) having joined the company as an intern and later getting tapped to lead sales and commercial and marketing operations. Hill’s agenda includes the challenging task of turning around a company that has slowed its product innovation and underestimated the value of working with third-party retailers.
• Investors cheered the C-level change in large part due to Donahoe’s failure to lift sales and boost share price. Nike cut its guidance for the current quarter after revenue for the previous one missed Wall Street expectations, leading to a steep drop in the share price. What’s more, the stock is down 24% on the year and rival startups Hoka and On are attracting consumers, slowly chipping away at Nike’s dominant market share.