Safe to update SKSpriteNode's texture on background thread?

I understand UI updates have to be on the main thread, but what about SKSpriteNode's texture? Can I update that in the background?

I can update it in the background and it works like I want it to. No crashes, warnings, etc. I did verify that the thread is not the main thread via [NSThread isMainThread].

I have since wrapped the texture change in a dispatch_sync on the main queue and it works the same as without it.

Regards, Patrick