BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S Has $15.47 Million Position in Williams-Sonoma, Inc. $WSM

Key Points

• BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S reduced its stake in Williams-Sonoma, Inc. by 50.1%, selling 98,126 shares, and now owns approximately 0.08% of the company valued at about $15.4 million.
• Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Williams-Sonoma by 21.8% in the first quarter, while multiple other institutional investors have also adjusted their positions significantly in the stock.
• Williams-Sonoma reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings, with an EPS of $1.85 versus the consensus estimate of $1.76, alongside a revenue of $1.73 billion.

BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S decreased its stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM - Free Report) by 50.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 97,872 shares of the specialty retailer's stock after selling 98,126 shares during the period. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S owned 0.08% of Williams-Sonoma worth $15,474,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Williams-Sonoma by 22.4% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,742 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $1,248,000 after purchasing an additional 1,236 shares during the last quarter. Mariner LLC raised its stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 11,225 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $2,079,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. United Capital Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma during the fourth quarter worth approximately $214,000. GeoWealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Williams-Sonoma by 85.9% in the fourth quarter. GeoWealth Management LLC now owns 2,625 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $486,000 after acquiring an additional 1,213 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC boosted its stake in Williams-Sonoma by 10.0% in the fourth quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 6,808 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $1,261,000 after acquiring an additional 619 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.29% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on WSM shares. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on Williams-Sonoma from $182.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. KeyCorp raised Williams-Sonoma from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $181.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Williams-Sonoma in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. Barclays set a $166.00 price objective on shares of Williams-Sonoma and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $215.00 target price on shares of Williams-Sonoma in a report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Williams-Sonoma has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $185.59.

Insider Activity

In other Williams-Sonoma news, CEO Laura Alber sold 30,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.18, for a total value of $5,045,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 966,927 shares in the company, valued at $162,617,782.86. This represents a 3.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Jeffrey Howie sold 4,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.96, for a total value of $675,840.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 34,388 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,810,196.48. This represents a 10.42% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 68,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,279,580 over the last quarter. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Williams-Sonoma Trading Up 3.1%

Shares of WSM stock traded up $6.1570 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $203.3670. 1,764,079 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,314,050. The company has a market capitalization of $25.01 billion, a PE ratio of 23.03, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 1.47. Williams-Sonoma, Inc. has a 52 week low of $125.33 and a 52 week high of $219.98. The business has a 50 day moving average of $180.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $172.93.

Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 22nd. The specialty retailer reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.67 billion. Williams-Sonoma had a net margin of 14.35% and a return on equity of 52.79%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.48 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Williams-Sonoma, Inc. will post 8.36 EPS for the current year.

Williams-Sonoma Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, July 18th will be paid a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 18th. Williams-Sonoma's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.90%.

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.