Covestor Ltd Boosts Stake in Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM)

Covestor Ltd increased its holdings in Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM) by 11.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,437 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 152 shares during the quarter. Covestor Ltd’s holdings in Williams-Sonoma were worth $266,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 15.5% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 396 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $73,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Williams-Sonoma by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,474 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $643,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Westmount Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Westmount Partners LLC now owns 6,242 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $1,156,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Bailard Inc. raised its position in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 4,091 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $758,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. Finally, Avantax Advisory Services Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 2,575 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $477,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.29% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Williams-Sonoma news, CFO Jeffrey Howie sold 1,408 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $273,602.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 46,388 shares in the company, valued at $9,014,116.16. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Laura Alber sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.76, for a total value of $9,349,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 944,666 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,263,808.16. This represents a 4.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 112,720 shares of company stock worth $20,616,369 over the last three months. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Williams-Sonoma from $195.00 to $185.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Telsey Advisory Group reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Williams-Sonoma in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Barclays lifted their price target on Williams-Sonoma from $123.00 to $131.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Williams-Sonoma from $195.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Baird R W raised Williams-Sonoma from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Williams-Sonoma presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $178.93.

Williams-Sonoma Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WSM traded down $7.45 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $150.80. The stock had a trading volume of 544,182 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,055,402. The business’s fifty day moving average is $181.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $173.70. The company has a market cap of $18.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.84, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.76. Williams-Sonoma, Inc. has a twelve month low of $125.33 and a twelve month high of $219.98.

Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, March 19th. The specialty retailer reported $3.28 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.88 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $2.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.34 billion. Williams-Sonoma had a return on equity of 51.56% and a net margin of 14.54%. Williams-Sonoma’s revenue was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $5.44 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast 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 dividend of $0.66 per share. This is a positive change from Williams-Sonoma’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.75%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Williams-Sonoma’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.30%.

About Williams-Sonoma

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.