Trajan Wealth LLC Lowers Holdings in Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM)

Trajan Wealth LLC reduced its position in shares of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM) by 13.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,964 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 298 shares during the period. Trajan Wealth LLC’s holdings in Williams-Sonoma were worth $364,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WSM. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $290,121,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 84.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,020,489 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $158,085,000 after purchasing an additional 467,407 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 64.1% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 989,700 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $183,273,000 after purchasing an additional 386,500 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Williams-Sonoma by 118.6% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 622,279 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $96,403,000 after purchasing an additional 337,564 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its holdings in Williams-Sonoma by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 563,058 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $104,267,000 after purchasing an additional 31,754 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.29% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WSM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Williams-Sonoma from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $170.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Baird R W raised shares of Williams-Sonoma from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Williams-Sonoma from $195.00 to $185.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Williams-Sonoma in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Wedbush lowered their price target on Williams-Sonoma from $190.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Williams-Sonoma has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $178.93.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Jeffrey Howie sold 36,312 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.79, for a total transaction of $6,020,166.48. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 46,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,690,666.52. This trade represents a 43.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Laura Alber sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.76, for a total value of $9,349,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 944,666 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,263,808.16. This trade represents a 4.55 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 120,720 shares of company stock worth $21,828,609. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Williams-Sonoma Stock Up 1.0 %

NYSE WSM opened at $139.04 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $172.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $173.39. The firm has a market cap of $17.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.76. Williams-Sonoma, Inc. has a twelve month low of $125.33 and a twelve month high of $219.98.

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

Williams-Sonoma Increases Dividend

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

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.