Advisors Capital Management LLC Sells 3,919 Shares of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. $WSM

Key Points

• Advisors Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in Williams-Sonoma, Inc. by 1.6% in the first quarter, now holding approximately $37.3 million worth of shares.
• Research firms like Morgan Stanley and Citigroup have raised their price targets for Williams-Sonoma, with an average consensus target price of $199.11.
• Williams-Sonoma reported a strong quarterly performance with an EPS of $2.00, exceeding estimates and showing a year-over-year revenue increase of 2.7%.

Advisors Capital Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM - Free Report) by 1.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 235,929 shares of the specialty retailer's stock after selling 3,919 shares during the quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC owned 0.19% of Williams-Sonoma worth $37,300,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Redwood Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Williams-Sonoma during the 4th quarter valued at $1,424,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new position in shares of Williams-Sonoma in the first quarter worth $895,000. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 26.4% in the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 44,398 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $7,019,000 after acquiring an additional 9,266 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 10.6% in the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 17,402 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $2,751,000 after acquiring an additional 1,673 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 128.0% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 217,644 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $34,410,000 after acquiring an additional 122,180 shares during the last quarter. 99.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Williams-Sonoma

In other Williams-Sonoma news, CEO Laura Alber sold 30,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.18, for a total value of $5,045,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 966,927 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $162,617,782.86. This trade represents a 3.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Jeffrey Howie sold 4,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.96, for a total transaction of $675,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 34,388 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,810,196.48. The trade was a 10.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 51,500 shares of company stock valued at $9,284,240 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company's stock.

Williams-Sonoma Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WSM traded down $6.22 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $197.30. 741,282 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,329,989. The company has a market cap of $24.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.70, a PEG ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 1.52. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $190.55 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $171.64. Williams-Sonoma, Inc. has a twelve month low of $125.33 and a twelve month high of $219.98.

Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 27th. The specialty retailer reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.79 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $1.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. Williams-Sonoma had a net margin of 14.54% and a return on equity of 54.47%. The company's revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.74 earnings per share. Williams-Sonoma has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Williams-Sonoma, Inc. will post 8.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams-Sonoma Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, July 18th were issued a $0.66 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 18th. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Williams-Sonoma's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.04%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Argus set a $212.00 price target on shares of Williams-Sonoma in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. UBS Group set a $200.00 price target on shares of Williams-Sonoma in a report on Thursday, August 28th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Williams-Sonoma from $181.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, August 25th. Barclays set a $166.00 price target on shares of Williams-Sonoma and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Gordon Haskett upgraded shares of Williams-Sonoma from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $205.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $199.11.

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.