Sportswear company Nike spent roughly $12.1 billion on buybacks for stock that would now be worth about $4.2 billion.

The company paid an average $97.57 apiece for 124.4 million of its own shares since June 2022, and its stock opened for trading today at $33.70, leaving Nike’s purchases with a $7.9 billion opportunity cost.

Technically, Nike retired the shares it repurchased, so although it doesn’t literally have a loss on its investment, realized or otherwise, the math is otherwise identical. Its unfortunately timed purchases are irreversible.

If executives had waited until today, they could have repurchased approximately three times the number of shares. Instead, the company initiated its share repurchase program in June 2022, and its stock has declined 71% despite its fervent bids.

As its evidently ineffective buybacks cost the company three years worth of net income earned from fiscal 2024-2026, Nike shares now trade 65% below its average repurchase price. 

Although remaining shareholders do own a bigger slice of the business, their larger share is of a smaller enterprise.

The company’s market capitalization has collapsed from $187 billion in June 2022 to $51 billion today.

As its stock slid, Nike kept buying, spending $4.3 billion on buybacks in fiscal 2024 plus $3 billion in fiscal 2025.

By fiscal 2026, the company started to realize its opportunity costs were accelerating, scaling back purchases to just $122 million.

Even by the quarter ending August 31, 2025, Nike blamed “lower operating cash flows” for a pause in its buyback program.

As the business threw off less cash, repurchases ended, and bearish investors sold into thinner bids.

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