CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co Sells 8,508 Shares of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM)

CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co lowered its stake in Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM) by 4.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 170,870 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 8,508 shares during the quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co owned 0.14% of Williams-Sonoma worth $31,637,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of WSM. Abacus FCF Advisors LLC increased its stake in Williams-Sonoma by 46.2% in the fourth quarter. Abacus FCF Advisors LLC now owns 23,950 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $4,435,000 after purchasing an additional 7,564 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Williams-Sonoma by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 109,359 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $20,251,000 after acquiring an additional 5,337 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in Williams-Sonoma by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 527,740 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $97,875,000 after acquiring an additional 172,409 shares during the period. National Pension Service increased its holdings in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 316,535 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $58,616,000 after acquiring an additional 3,200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its holdings in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 132.0% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 3,905 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $723,000 after purchasing an additional 2,222 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.29% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WSM has been the topic of several research reports. Wedbush lowered their price objective on shares of Williams-Sonoma from $190.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Williams-Sonoma in a research note on Friday, April 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Williams-Sonoma from $170.00 to $224.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group raised Williams-Sonoma from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $140.00 to $165.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Gordon Haskett raised Williams-Sonoma to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $178.93.

Williams-Sonoma Stock Up 1.0 %

Williams-Sonoma stock opened at $139.04 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $17.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.76. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $172.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $173.10. Williams-Sonoma, Inc. has a twelve month low of $125.33 and a twelve month high of $219.98.

Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 19th. The specialty retailer reported $3.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.88 by $0.40. Williams-Sonoma had a return on equity of 51.56% and a net margin of 14.54%. The business had revenue of $2.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.34 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $5.44 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Williams-Sonoma, Inc. will post 8.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams-Sonoma Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, May 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.66 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. This is an increase from Williams-Sonoma’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. Williams-Sonoma’s dividend payout ratio is 29.30%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Karalyn Yearout sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $1,212,240.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,505 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,501,002.65. This represents a 32.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Jeffrey Howie sold 1,408 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $273,602.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 46,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,014,116.16. This trade represents a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 120,720 shares of company stock worth $21,828,609 over the last quarter. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.