Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM) Stock Price Up 0.3% Following Analyst Upgrade

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM - Get Free Report)'s share price traded up 0.3% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Evercore ISI raised their price target on the stock from $310.00 to $315.00. Evercore ISI currently has an in-line rating on the stock. Williams-Sonoma traded as high as $320.07 and last traded at $316.65. 237,978 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 76% from the average session volume of 971,498 shares. The stock had previously closed at $315.62.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Williams-Sonoma from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Telsey Advisory Group boosted their price objective on shares of Williams-Sonoma from $320.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Oppenheimer reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Williams-Sonoma in a research report on Friday, March 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Williams-Sonoma from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $154.00 to $263.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $330.00 price objective on shares of Williams-Sonoma in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $257.13.

Insider Transactions at Williams-Sonoma

In related news, CEO Laura Alber sold 20,000 shares of Williams-Sonoma stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.74, for a total transaction of $5,674,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 505,509 shares in the company, valued at $143,433,123.66. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Williams-Sonoma news, EVP Karalyn Smith sold 1,145 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.06, for a total value of $330,973.70. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,966 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,013,591.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Laura Alber sold 20,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $283.74, for a total value of $5,674,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 505,509 shares in the company, valued at $143,433,123.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,145 shares of company stock worth $12,182,219 over the last three months. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Williams-Sonoma

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Williams-Sonoma in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,337,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma in the first quarter worth approximately $208,000. CreativeOne Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 82.0% in the first quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 2,483 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $788,000 after acquiring an additional 1,119 shares during the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 520.0% in the first quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 93 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tiemann Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma in the first quarter worth approximately $279,000. 99.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Williams-Sonoma Price Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $291.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $229.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.72.

Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 13th. The specialty retailer reported $5.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.06 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $2.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.22 billion. Williams-Sonoma had a return on equity of 55.15% and a net margin of 12.25%. The business's revenue was down 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $5.50 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Williams-Sonoma, Inc. will post 15.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams-Sonoma Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 19th will be paid a dividend of $1.13 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 18th. This represents a $4.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.43%. This is a positive change from Williams-Sonoma's previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. Williams-Sonoma's payout ratio is 31.02%.

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.