Williams-Sonoma posts
FeedPosted Jan 10th 2011 5:00PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Stocks to Buy

Upscale retailer Williams-Sonoma (
WSM), first discussed here
on December 14, 2009 at a price of $22.00, cleared
$30 resistance last autumn and also tested $37 before pulling back some, and now may be a good time to consider taking some profits if you're in at/near $22.
Other investors who can tolerate the risk can maintain their full position, as a push to $40 by WSM in 2011 would not be a stretch, but there are risks.
Look for Sonoma's FY2012 sales to increase 6-8%, after a likely 10-12% surge (albeit against easy comparisons), in FY2011. Same store sales in FY2012 will probably rise 3-4%.
Continue reading Williams-Sonoma: Time to Take Some Profits?
Posted Nov 12th 2010 11:30AM by Eric Buscemi (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Altria Group (MO), Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY), Boeing Co (BA), CIGNA Corp (CI), Analyst Initiations, Eaton Corp (ETN), MetLife Inc. (MET)
Analyst Upgrades
- Goldman upgraded Eaton (ETN) to conviction buy from neutral.
- AECOM Technology (ACM) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Macquarie.
- Piper Jaffray upgraded Hologic (HOLX), Gen-Probe (GPRO) and Qiagen (QGEN) to overweight from neutral.
- GeoMet (GMET) was upgraded to accumulate from neutral at Global Hunter.
- Accretive Health (AH) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
- Morgan Stanley upgraded Reinsurance Group (RGA) to overweight from equal weight.
- BofA/Merrill upgraded Clearwire (CLWR) to neutral from underperform.
Continue reading Analyst Calls: BA, BBBY, CI, CLWR, DFS, DLTR, ETN, MET, MO, WSM ...
Posted Oct 8th 2010 2:00PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Stocks to Buy

Upscale retailer Williams-Sonoma (
WSM), first discussed here on December 14, 2009, at
a price of $22.00, remains an enviable retail chain, and I still like the shares here.
Sonoma's FY2011 sales will like increase 8% to 10%, albeit against easy comparisons, but investors will take the upside, just the same. Same store sales will probably rise 6% to7%, again versus 'easy comps,' due to the recession.
Moreover, the argument forwarded here calculates that higher-end retail chains like Williams-Sonoma will bounce back sooner than general consumer retail. Hence, the "frugal consumer" trend remains in force, but high-end consumers, encouraged by a recovering U.S.
economy, will start to part with a few more bucks at the mall.
Continue reading Williams-Sonoma: Retail Sector Survivor
Posted Jul 29th 2010 11:30AM by Eric Buscemi (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Advanced Micro Dev (AMD), Boeing Co (BA), ConocoPhillips (COP), CVS Corp (CVS), Analyst Initiations
Analyst Upgrades
- BofA/Merrill upgraded ConocoPhillips (COP) to neutral from underperform following the better-than-expected Q2 report. The firm has a $61 price target on shares.
- Deutsche Bank upgraded Citrix Systems (CTXS) to buy from hold following the company's Q2 results and raised its target for shares to $65 from $45. Shares were also upgraded to neutral from underperform at Cowen following the better-than-expected Q2 report.
- Macquarie upgraded Arch Coal (ACI) to outperform from underperform and raised its price target to $29 from $23. The firm expects PRB priced to move higher given increased domestic and export demand combined with supply shortfalls.
- Boeing (BA) was upgraded to hold from sell at Societe Generale.
- Equinix (EQIX) was upgraded to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer.
- Williams-Sonoma (WSM) was upgraded to equal weight from underweight at Barclays.
Continue reading Analyst Calls: ACI, BA, COP, CTXS, CVS, NGS, NVDA, VPRT, WSM ...
Posted May 28th 2010 5:20PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Stocks to Buy

Upscale retailer Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (
WSM), which I first wrote about
on December 14, 2009 at a price of $22.00, is a rare retail play that has promise, and I obviously still like the shares here.
Look for Sonoma's sales to increase a healthy 8-10% in 2010, admittedly against easy comparisons, but investors will take the upside, just the same. Further, the argument forwarded here calculates that higher-end retail chains like Williams-Sonoma will bounce back sooner than the general-consumer retail segment. Hence, the 'frugal consumer' trend remains in force, but high-end consumers, encouraged by a recovering U.S. economy, will start to part with a few more bucks at the mall.
Continue reading Williams-Sonoma: Pull-Back Creates an Opportunity
Posted Mar 27th 2010 12:50PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Walgreen Co (WAG), Adobe Systems (ADBE), Best Buy (BBY), Tiffany and Co (TIF), General Mills (GIS), KB HOME (KBH), Oracle Corp (ORCL), Red Hat Inc (RHT), QUALCOMM Inc (QCOM)
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks:
- Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) reported that Q1 revenue was up but earnings declined sharply, and it offered guidance.
- Best Buy Inc. (BBY) shares rallied after it topped Q4 earnings expectations and offered encouraging guidance.
- Brinker International Inc. (EAT) raised its outlook for fiscal 2010 and also increased its quarterly dividend.
- China Automotive Systems Inc. (CAAS) reported that its revenue had doubled and it beat earnings expectations.
- ConAgra Foods Inc. (CAG) Q3 earnings matched estimates and revenue was flat, and it reaffirmed its outlook.
- Finish Line Inc. (FINL) shares rallied after it reported that Q4 earnings came in better than analysts' expected.
Continue reading Earnings Highlights: Adobe, Best Buy, General Mills, Oracle, Tiffany, Walgreen ...
Posted Mar 22nd 2010 1:50PM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY)
Williams-Sonoma (WSM), a retailer of high-end merchandise whose concepts include Pottery Barn and West Elm, reported results for the fourth quarter earlier today. If you were trading this name ahead of the numbers, you made out, because the market gave this stock a nice bid on the news.
On an adjusted basis, net income came in at 86 cents per share; the company made 31 cents per share in the comparable period on the same basis. According to our preview, the bottom line beat estimates by twelve pennies. Total sales revenue increased 8%. Same-store sales jumped a very attractive 7.6%; the metric was down double-digits last time around.
Continue reading Williams-Sonoma Popular with Investors After Q4 Report
Posted Mar 21st 2010 12:00PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Tiffany and Co (TIF), General Mills (GIS)
The coming week will bring late-season earnings reports from Best Buy Inc. (BBY), ConAgra Foods Inc. (CAG), Oracle Corp. (ORCL) and Walgreen Co. (WAG), all of which are expected to post earnings and revenue growth, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. Below is a closer look at a few other companies reporting this week for which expectations are high.
In the three months that ended in January, Williams-Sonoma (WSM) saw strong holiday sales, declared a quarterly dividend, and announced the retirement of its CEO. Analysts expect the San Francisco-based home products retailer to report that fiscal fourth-quarter earnings more than doubled from the same period of last year to $0.74 per share. Revenue for the period is expected to be 6.2% higher to $1.1 billion. For the full year, the forecast calls for earnings of $0.81 per share (+56.8%) on $3.1 billion in revenue (-8.3%). Williams-Sonoma earnings results have been better than expected in recent quarters -- beating consensus estimates by more than 200% in the third quarter.
Continue reading The Week in Preview: Eye on General Mills, Tiffany, Williams-Sonoma and more
Posted Mar 5th 2010 11:00AM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Stocks to Buy

Williams-Sonoma (
WSM), which I first wrote about here
on Dec. 14, 2009, when it was at a price of $22.00, is a retailer I still like. Here's why:
I predict that the higher-end retail chains like Williams-Sonoma will bounce back sooner than the general consumer retail. While the "frugal consumer" trend remains in force, the high-end consumer, encouraged by a recovering U.S. economy, will start to part with a few more bucks at the mall.
Continue reading Williams-Sonoma: Upscale Retail Recovery Play
Posted Dec 14th 2009 5:00PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Stocks to Buy

It's time to re-enter the retail sector, from an investment standpoint, but only selectively, and a good starting point is Williams-Sonoma Inc. (
WSM).
The argument here is that higher-end retail chains like Williams-Sonoma will bounce back sooner than general consumer retail. Hence, the "frugal consumer" trend remains in force, but high-end consumers, encouraged by a recovering U.S. economy, will start to part with a few more bucks at the mall in 2010.
Continue reading Williams-Sonoma: A high-end retail play
Posted Jun 6th 2009 12:10PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Google (GOOG), Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (KKD), Aetna Inc (AET), Ciena Corp (CIEN), Valero Energy (VLO), KKR Financial (KFN), Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF)
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:
Continue reading Earnings highlights: Google, KKR, Krispy Kreme, Williams-Sonoma, Guess? and more
Posted Jun 3rd 2009 5:33PM by Jim Woods (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Google (GOOG), Amazon.com (AMZN), McDonald's (MCD), Stocks to Buy, Stocks to Sell
A recent Time magazine cover story described it as, "The New Frugality." The "it" here is the change in behavior, attitudes and even values Americans are embracing as a byproduct of the "Great Recession." It's just a fact that most of us have in some way or another altered our spending habits to a more frugal lifestyle as a direct result of the worst economic downturn since the 1930s.
One company feeling the sting of the country's new frugality is high-end retailer Williams-Sonoma (NYSE: WSM). Today the company reported a Q1 loss of $18.7 million, or 18 cents a share, compared with a profit of $10.4 million, or 10 cents a share, a year earlier. A performance not uncommon for retail stocks these days.
The losses were actually smaller than the company had projected, but those previous projections included a slashed advertising budget, a cut in capital spending and lowered merchandise inventories. More importantly, the company said that revenue in the quarter ended May 3 fell 22% to $611.6 million. Yikes!
Of course, Wall Street rewarded the anemic results with a near-10% drop in Wednesday's trade. So, what does the Williams-Sonoma miss tell us?
Continue reading Attention Williams-Sonoma: Get used to a 'frugal nation'
Posted Mar 28th 2009 11:40AM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Walgreen Co (WAG), Best Buy (BBY), Carnival Corp (CCL), Tiffany and Co (TIF), ConAgra Foods (CAG), Research in Motion (RIMM), KB HOME (KBH)
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:
Continue reading Earnings highlights: Best Buy, Walgreen, Tiffany, Research in Motion, KB Home and more
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