First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Invests $274,000 in Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 1,357 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $274,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WSM. MCF Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Williams-Sonoma in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 129.3% during the third quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 188 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 820.0% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 230 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the period. Lindbrook Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Williams-Sonoma by 30.5% in the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 231 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd bought a new position in Williams-Sonoma during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Institutional investors own 99.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $330.00 target price on shares of Williams-Sonoma in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Williams-Sonoma from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $245.00 to $275.00 in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Williams-Sonoma from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $155.00 to $270.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Williams-Sonoma from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Williams-Sonoma from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Williams-Sonoma presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $256.19.

Insider Transactions at Williams-Sonoma

In related news, CEO Laura Alber sold 20,000 shares of Williams-Sonoma stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 505,509 shares in the company, valued at $143,433,123.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Karalyn Smith sold 1,145 shares of Williams-Sonoma stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.06, for a total transaction of $330,973.70. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 6,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,013,591.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Laura Alber sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $283.74, for a total transaction of $5,674,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 505,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $143,433,123.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,145 shares of company stock worth $12,182,219 in the last 90 days. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Williams-Sonoma Stock Performance

WSM opened at $301.56 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $284.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $225.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.72. Williams-Sonoma, Inc. has a 52-week low of $109.44 and a 52-week high of $319.78.

Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 13th. The specialty retailer reported $5.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.06 by $0.38. The company had revenue of $2.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.22 billion. Williams-Sonoma had a net margin of 12.25% and a return on equity of 55.15%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $5.50 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Williams-Sonoma, Inc. will post 15.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams-Sonoma Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 19th will be issued a $1.13 dividend. This is an increase from Williams-Sonoma’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 18th. This represents a $4.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.50%. Williams-Sonoma’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.02%.

Williams-Sonoma Company 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.