UPDATE 4-Nike profit up but shares tumble on US concerns

(Adds quotes, updates share price)

By Alexandria Sage

SAN FRANCISCO, June 25 (Reuters) - Nike Inc (NKE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) stressed on Wednesday that it was still a growth company even as U.S. weakness spooked investors, sending shares down 5 percent on a day when the world's largest athletic shoe and apparel maker posted strong international results.

Nike, which has been controlling its inventory in its home market amid an economic slump, said U.S. advanced orders for its goods through November were flat, which one analyst called a "a sign of the times."

"The U.S. market is the most mature so you would expect after a time it's hard to keep growing and growing," McAdams Wright Ragen analyst Sara Hasan said. "Add on top of that the consumer is pretty weak. They've been pretty immune to that."

Besides robust international growth, a 12 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit was helped by a $32 million gain in the quarter from its sale of Nike Bauer Hockey, while its tax rate fell compared with a year earlier due to more profit coming from outside the United States.

Those benefits, when excluded, may have made Nike's actual earnings seem lighter than expected, Thomas Weisel analyst Jim Duffy said.

"Everybody was expecting a solid if not strong quarter. There were probably some that thought earnings would come in even better than where they did," Duffy said. "The level of spending surprised people."

Nike has been spending on its U.S. retail expansion, marketing for the World Cup and Olympics, and in integrating its newly acquired Umbro soccer brand.