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Nike offers both sports performance and lifestyle merchandise. Footwear is its largest category at about two-thirds of sales. It also sells large amounts of apparel (about 30% of sales) and equipment (5%). Key performance categories include basketball, running, and football (soccer). Brands include Nike, Jordan (premium athletic footwear and clothing), ACG (outdoor), NikeSkims (women’s athleisure), and Converse (casual footwear). Nike sells products worldwide through company-owned stores, franchised stores (including about 5,500 in China), and third-party retailers. The firm also operates e-commerce platforms in more than 40 countries. Nearly all its production is outsourced to contract manufacturers in more than 30 countries. Nike was founded in 1964 and is based in Beaverton, Oregon.

The markets soared in the first half of 2026, with the S&P 500 up 9%. Can the momentum continue? At Argus, we think the bull still has some life. In fact, in our "base case" for the second half of the year, we see the S&P 500 gaining another 5%-7%. We also have a "bullish case," where more goes right, and a "bearish case," where more goes wrong. As we start the back half of the year, we have tweaked our annual investment themes (originally publish in January), focusing on six that we expect will drive the stock market. Those six themes are AI Broadens Out; Energy Realignment; Upbeat Management Signals, Dividend Hikes; Upbeat Management Signals, Raising Guidance; Consumer Relief; and Rotation into Income. For this week's list, we dive into the first three themes and identify certain key stocks that we believe exemplify each theme.

We have different ways of looking at market valuations. Most are signaling that stocks are reasonably valued, but not bargains. Our asset-allocation model, the Stock/Bond Barometer, suggests that the two major portfolio asset classes are near parity for valuation. The model goes back to 1960 and takes into account the likes of real-time price levels, historical growth rates and forward-looking forecasts of short-term and long-term government and corporate fixed-income yields, inflation, stock prices, GDP, and corporate earnings. The output is expressed in standard deviations to the mean, or sigma. The mean reading is a modest premium for stocks of 0.18 sigma, with a standard deviation of 1.07. So stocks normally sell at a slight premium compared to bonds. The valuation level now is a 0.60 sigma premium for stocks, not a discount but within the normal range. Other measures also show reasonable multiples for stocks. The forward P/E ratio for the S&P 500 is 20, within the range of 15-24. On price/book, stocks are priced at the high end of the historical range of 5.5-1.8, given that tech stocks, with low capital bases, are the biggest component of the market. The current S&P 500 dividend yield of 1.03% is below the historical average of 2.9%, but the relative reading to the 10-year Treasury bond yield is 24% compared to the long-run average of 39% and the all-time low of 18%. On price/sales, the current ratio of 3.5 is above the historical average of 1.8, but well below the 4.0 multiple at the peak of the dot-com bubble. Further, the gap between the S&P 500 earnings yield and the benchmark 10-year government bond yield is now 400 basis points, in line with the historical average and well below the nosebleed valuation levels of 200. Lastly, the ratio of the S&P 500 price to an ounce of gold is 1.7, within the normal range of 1-3. These measures suggest to us stocks at record highs are not in danger of entering bubble territory at this juncture.

The Vickers Top Insider Picks is a daily report that utilizes a proprietary algorithm to identify 25 companies with compelling insider purchase histories based on transactions over the past three months.