How much to invest in Nike stock for $1,000 in annual dividends (2026) | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Nike (NKE) has always been about winning. The swoosh means something. But right now, the athletic giant is in the middle of a difficult reset, and investors wondering whether to buy shares for dividend income face a complicated question.

Here’s the math: Nike stock trades around $65.41 with an annual dividend of $1.64 per share. To collect $1,000 in annual dividends, you’d need roughly 610 shares. That works out to an investment of approximately $39,900.

It’s not chump change, and the bigger question is whether Nike can protect that payout while it fights to get back on track.

Nike’s stellar dividend growth

Nike has paid dividends for years and increased them regularly. In fact, if it increases its dividend again this year, it will join the Dividend Aristocrats, a select group ofS&P 500companies that have increased dividends for 25 consecutive years.

Data from Fiscal.ai suggests that the footwear behemoth has raised its annual dividend from $0.16 per share in 2006 to $1.64 per share in 2026, indicating an annual growth rate of over 12%.

Even during the current struggles, management hasn’t hinted at cutting the dividend. CFO Matt Friend emphasized on the recent earnings call that the company remains committed to returning cash to shareholders.

Nike generated over$2.4 billion in free cash flow over the past year, despite the downturn, which covers the roughly $1.7 billion annual dividend obligation with room to spare.

According to data from Tikr.com, between fiscal 2025 and 2030, analysts covering Nike stock forecast it to increase:

Revenue from $46.3 billion to $58 billion.
Adjusted EPS from $2.16 to $4.22.
FCF from $3.27 billion to $3.91 billion.
Annual dividend from $1.57 per share to $2 per share.

The dividend yield of 2.4% is appealing compared to 2021’s less than 1% and the historical average of around 1%. That higher yield reflects the stock’s 63% decline from all-time highs.

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For income investors, that creates an opportunity, assuming Nike can stabilize the business and protect the payout. The risk is that continued weakness forces management to rethink capital allocation priorities.

The turnaround is moving slowly

CEO Elliott Hill keeps saying Nike is in the “middle innings” of its comeback.

The company is trying to fix several problems at once:

Too much reliance on classic sneakers that lost their cool factor.
A bloated direct-to-consumer strategy that alienated wholesale partners.
Fierce competition from younger brands.

Second-quarter fiscal 2026 results showed modest progress:

Revenue rose 1% year over year, with wholesale up 8%.
North America delivered 9% growth.
Running footwear surged over 20% for the second straight quarter.

But other parts of the business remain broken.

Nike Direct fell 9%. Greater China sales dropped 16%. Earnings per share came in at just $0.53, down from $0.78 in the year-ago period. Analysts expect full-year fiscal 2026 earnings to fall 28.3% year over year to $1.55 per share.

The company is also dealing with tariff headwinds that are costing about $1.5 billion annually in higher product costs.

Nike CFO Matthew Friend stated:

Management said this represents a 320 basis-point hit to gross margins, which they’ve only partially offset through other actions.

Hill and his team are making changes by:

Rebuilding relationships with key wholesale partners, such as Foot Locker.
Investing in new product innovation across multiple sports.
Hiring more salespeople in key markets.
Cleaning up excess inventory and cutting promotions.

All of that makes sense strategically, but it takes time to show up in results. And time is something dividend investors need to consider carefully.

China problem won’t fix itself quickly

Nike’s struggles in Greater China stand out as particularly concerning. The region has historically been a major growth driver, but revenue fell 16% in the most recent quarter.

Hill acknowledged the business has become “a lifestyle brand competing on price” rather than the premium, innovation-focused position Nike wants.

The company cut store investments, reduced sales staff, and let promotional activity spiral out of control. Now they’re trying to reset, but it won’t happen overnight.

Management is working with partners Pou Sheng and Topsports to improve store presentation and product assortment, while investing in key cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

Early results from pilot stores show some promise, but the improvements aren’t scaling fast enough.

China represents one of the world’s largest sportswear markets, with over 1.4 billion potential consumers. If Nike can’t get back on track there, it limits the company’s long-term growth potential and puts more pressure on other regions to deliver.

What dividend investors should consider?

For someone with $40,000 to invest, generating $1,000 in annual dividends from Nike stock is straightforward math. The harder question is whether it’s a smart move right now.

Nike’s dividend appears safe in the near term.
Free cash flow covers the payout, and management hasn’t signaled any intention to cut.
The higher yield compensates investors for the uncertainty around the business turnaround.

But dividend safety isn’t just about covering the payout today. It’s about whether the underlying business can grow over time and support future increases. Right now, Nike is shrinking, not growing. Earnings are falling, not rising.

Nike needs to prove it can execute on Hill’s Win Now strategy, regain market share in key categories, and rebuild momentum in critical markets like China. That could take several quarters, or even years.

Conservative dividend investors might want to see more evidence of stabilization before putting serious money to work. More aggressive investors willing to bet on the turnaround could view the higher yield as attractive compensation for the risk.

Either way, anyone buying Nike for dividends today should go in with eyes wide open. The swoosh still carries weight, and the brand has staying power. But the path back to consistent growth and margin expansion isn’t clear yet.

Investing almost $40,000 in a single stock does not make financial sense for most individuals. Whether that’s a good use of capital depends on your risk tolerance and belief in management’s ability to execute the turnaround.