Williams-Sonoma Jumps 3% After Q3 Earnings Beat

Williams-Sonoma (NYSE: WSM) is up more than three percent in after hours trading after announcing the firm's third quarter results.

The retailer reported a Q3 EPS of $0.58 versus the Street estimate of $0.55.

Earnings per share were up 18 percent from the year-ago period.

Revenue arrived at $1.05 billion -- slightly more than the Wall Street estimate of $1.04 billion.

Sales were up 11 percent year-over-year.

"Our strong third quarter and our performance year-to-date illustrate the power of our business model and the relevancy of our brands," Laura Alber, President and Chief Executive Officer of Williams-Sonoma, said in a company release. "We delivered an 11% increase in revenue and EPS growth in excess of 18%. Importantly, we delivered this revenue growth and accompanying operating margin expansion while simultaneously investing in our multi-faceted growth initiatives.”

"We believe we are well-positioned heading into the holiday season and will continue to execute our key strategies to deliver an exceptional experience for our customers. We are focused on generating top-line results in conjunction with operational and capital discipline to deliver long-term shareholder value."

Alber concluded by saying that, given the company's year-to-date results and its "confidence in the fourth quarter," it is raising its fiscal year 2013 revenue and EPS guidance.

"We are now guiding fiscal year 2013 revenue to a range of $4.290 billion to $4.350 billion," she said.

Williams-Sonoma anticipates a 4Q EPS between $1.30 and $1.37 versus the Street estimate of $1.36.

Sales are expected to fall within the $1.37 billion and $1.43 billion range versus Wall Street's estimate of $1.43 billion.

The company's fiscal year EPS is guided between $2.76 and $2.83 versus the Street estimate of $2.80.

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.

Louis Bedigian is the Senior Tech Analyst and Features Writer of Benzinga. You can reach him at louis(at)benzingapro(dot)com. Follow him @LouisBedigianBZ