The Wall Street Journal-20080116-Earnings Digest Brief -- Williams-Sonoma Inc-- Fourth-Quarter Forecast Is Lowered on Tepid Sales
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Earnings Digest Brief -- Williams-Sonoma Inc.: Fourth-Quarter Forecast Is Lowered on Tepid Sales
Williams-Sonoma Inc. reduced its fiscal fourth-quarter forecast because of weaker-than-expected holiday same-store sales, adding it doesn't foresee the market bouncing back in the near term. Shares of the San Francisco company, which owns the Pottery Barn and West Elm chains as well as Williams-Sonoma, fell $2.19, or 9.9%, to $20.01 in 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The housewares retailer now expects earnings of $1.11 to $1.14 a share, with revenue of $1.36 billion to $1.39 billion and same-store sales being flat to down 1.5%. That compares with a prior forecast for earnings of $1.19 to $1.25 a share, revenue of $1.39 billion to $1.42 billion and same- store sales up 0.5% to 2.5%. Williams-Sonoma also forecast flat or slightly lower revenue for the fiscal year ending this month and a single-digit percentage rise in per-share earnings. The mean estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial was for 5% revenue growth to $4.17 billion and 10% earnings growth to $2 a share. Chief Executive Howard Lester said the economic environment in the fourth quarter had weakened and retail traffic "slowed even further than we anticipated, particularly in our home-furnishings businesses."
