Evergreen Capital Management LLC Sells 151 Shares of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. $WSM

Evergreen Capital Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM) by 3.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,587 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 151 shares during the period. Evergreen Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Williams-Sonoma were worth $725,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new position in Williams-Sonoma during the first quarter valued at approximately $5,780,000. Trexquant Investment LP lifted its position in Williams-Sonoma by 65.6% during the first quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 166,038 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $26,251,000 after purchasing an additional 65,769 shares during the period. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp increased its holdings in Williams-Sonoma by 16.8% during the first quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 14,916 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $2,358,000 after buying an additional 2,144 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in Williams-Sonoma by 350.3% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 259,224 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $40,983,000 after buying an additional 201,660 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eisler Capital Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Williams-Sonoma during the first quarter valued at approximately $4,119,000. Institutional investors own 99.29% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WSM has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group set a $200.00 target price on shares of Williams-Sonoma in a report on Thursday. Barclays set a $166.00 target price on shares of Williams-Sonoma and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Williams-Sonoma from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Williams-Sonoma from $179.00 to $203.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Gordon Haskett raised shares of Williams-Sonoma from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $205.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Williams-Sonoma has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $198.35.

Williams-Sonoma Stock Performance

WSM opened at $187.77 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.66, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.52. The company has a fifty day moving average of $183.88 and a 200 day moving average of $171.92. Williams-Sonoma, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $125.33 and a fifty-two week high of $219.98.

Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 27th. The specialty retailer reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.79 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $1.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.82 billion. Williams-Sonoma had a net margin of 14.54% and a return on equity of 54.47%. Williams-Sonoma’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.74 earnings per share. Williams-Sonoma has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Williams-Sonoma, Inc. will post 8.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams-Sonoma Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 18th were paid a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 18th. Williams-Sonoma’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.04%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Williams-Sonoma news, CEO Laura Alber sold 30,000 shares of Williams-Sonoma stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 966,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $162,617,782.86. This trade represents a 3.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Jeffrey Howie sold 4,000 shares of Williams-Sonoma stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $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. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

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.