Valeo Financial Advisors LLC Buys New Position in Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM)

Valeo Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,397 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tilia Fiduciary Partners Inc. raised its stake in Williams-Sonoma by 86.5% in the 3rd quarter. Tilia Fiduciary Partners Inc. now owns 11,575 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $1,793,000 after purchasing an additional 5,369 shares during the last quarter. B & T Capital Management DBA Alpha Capital Management increased its stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 96.8% during the 3rd quarter. B & T Capital Management DBA Alpha Capital Management now owns 42,552 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $6,592,000 after acquiring an additional 20,930 shares during the last quarter. FCF Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. FCF Advisors LLC now owns 16,386 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $2,539,000 after acquiring an additional 8,193 shares during the last quarter. JGP Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 102.8% during the 3rd quarter. JGP Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,639 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $1,493,000 after acquiring an additional 4,886 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Albion Financial Group UT increased its stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 98.6% during the 3rd quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 11,484 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $1,779,000 after acquiring an additional 5,701 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.29% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Williams-Sonoma

In other Williams-Sonoma news, CEO Laura Alber sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.27, for a total value of $5,810,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,030,956 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $149,766,978.12. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Williams-Sonoma news, CEO Laura Alber sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.27, for a total value of $5,810,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,030,956 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $149,766,978.12. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Karalyn Smith sold 11,100 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.66, for a total value of $1,494,726.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,040,099. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on WSM. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Williams-Sonoma from $232.00 to $116.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Williams-Sonoma from $158.00 to $145.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Wedbush dropped their price objective on shares of Williams-Sonoma from $175.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Williams-Sonoma in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Williams-Sonoma from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $148.00 to $156.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $140.83.

Williams-Sonoma Stock Up 1.4 %

NYSE WSM opened at $148.13 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $19.05 billion, a PE ratio of 18.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.74. Williams-Sonoma, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $71.56 and a fifty-two week high of $174.26. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $142.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $146.35.

Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 22nd. The specialty retailer reported $1.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.61 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.81 billion. Williams-Sonoma had a return on equity of 51.57% and a net margin of 14.29%. Williams-Sonoma’s quarterly revenue was down 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.56 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Williams-Sonoma, Inc. will post 7.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams-Sonoma Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.57 per share. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 18th. Williams-Sonoma’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.01%.

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.