Bridgefront Capital LLC Takes Position in Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM)

Bridgefront Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund purchased 3,180 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $589,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its position in Williams-Sonoma by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 645,402 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $119,516,000 after purchasing an additional 24,741 shares during the period. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC acquired a new position in Williams-Sonoma in the fourth quarter valued at about $10,694,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in Williams-Sonoma during the fourth quarter worth about $588,000. Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 13.8% during the fourth quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 6,496 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $1,203,000 after acquiring an additional 788 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baker Avenue Asset Management LP raised its stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP now owns 2,294 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $425,000 after acquiring an additional 189 shares during the period. 99.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on WSM shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Williams-Sonoma from $195.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Williams-Sonoma from $123.00 to $131.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Gordon Haskett upgraded Williams-Sonoma to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Williams-Sonoma from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, KeyCorp raised shares of Williams-Sonoma from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $181.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, April 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Williams-Sonoma presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $175.94.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Laura Alber sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.78, for a total transaction of $4,973,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,018,374 shares in the company, valued at approximately $168,826,041.72. This trade represents a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Jeffrey Howie sold 36,312 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.79, for a total transaction of $6,020,166.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 46,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,690,666.52. This trade represents a 43.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 80,635 shares of company stock valued at $13,236,175. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Williams-Sonoma Stock Performance

WSM opened at $158.39 on Tuesday. Williams-Sonoma, Inc. has a one year low of $125.33 and a one year high of $219.98. The company has a market cap of $19.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.73, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.76. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $160.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $173.74.

Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 19th. The specialty retailer reported $3.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.40. Williams-Sonoma had a net margin of 14.54% and a return on equity of 51.56%. The company had revenue of $2.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.44 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Williams-Sonoma, Inc. will post 8.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams-Sonoma Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, May 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 17th will be paid a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. This is an increase from Williams-Sonoma’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Williams-Sonoma’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.30%.

Williams-Sonoma Profile

Williams-Sonoma, Inc operates as an omni-channel specialty retailer of various products for home. It offers cooking, dining, and entertaining products, such as cookware, tools, electrics, cutlery, tabletop and bar, outdoor, furniture, and a library of cookbooks under the Williams Sonoma Home brand, as well as home furnishings and decorative accessories under the Williams Sonoma lifestyle brand; and furniture, bedding, lighting, rugs, table essentials, and decorative accessories under the Pottery Barn brand.