Williams-Sonoma, Inc. announces third quarter 2020 results

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE: WSM) today announced operating results for the third fiscal quarter ended November 1, 2020 (“Q3 20”) versus the third fiscal quarter ended November 3, 2019 (“Q3 19”).

“In the third quarter, sales again outperformed expectations with demand comp up nearly 31% compared to a net comp of 24%, driven by strength across all brands. E-commerce accelerated sequentially to a record net comp of over 49% and we were pleased to see our store performance improve throughout the quarter to a net comp of negative 11%. Even more encouraging is the retail demand comp at negative 4%. And, we delivered these sales more profitably, with operating margins reaching record levels at 15.7%,” said Laura Alber, President and Chief Executive Officer.

“Our company’s mission is to enhance the quality of people’s lives at home. We have built our business with this mission at the forefront, investing in areas that matter most to our customers. These include:

1. High quality, well-designed, sustainable products at a great value because of our scale and vertical supply chain;
2. Inspiring marketing, and;
3. The convenience of our high-touch digital-first omnichannel experience.

And this, combined with our loved brands that serve a wide range of customers across aesthetics and price points, is our distinctive positioning and our competitive advantage,” Alber continued.

Alber concluded, “Our vision is to own the home. And, with our distinctive positioning we will only become more relevant. We have the strategies, the team and the world-class platform to maximize the industry trends that favor our business and successfully execute on our growth opportunities. We are confident that we will continue to drive accelerating sales growth with increasing profitability and evolve into an even more attractive business for our stakeholders during and post pandemic.”

THIRD QUARTER 2020

• Net revenue growth of 22.4% to $1.765 billion, driven by acceleration across all brands
• Demand comparable brand revenue growth accelerated to 31%, which includes orders placed but not yet filled or charged to the customer in the quarter
• Net comparable brand revenue growth of 24.4%, with sequential and year-over-year acceleration in all brands, including Williams Sonoma at a record 30.4%, Pottery Barn at 24.1%, Pottery Barn Kids and Teen at 23.8% and West Elm at 21.8%
• E-commerce net comparable brand revenue growth accelerated to 49.3% with e-commerce penetration holding at almost 70% of total net revenues
• GAAP and non-GAAP gross margin of 40.0%, expanding approximately 400bps and driven by higher year-over-year merchandise margins and occupancy leverage
• GAAP and non-GAAP occupancy costs were $174 million, leveraging approximately 250bps
• GAAP SG&A rate of 24.4%; non-GAAP SG&A rate of 24.3%, leveraging approximately 410bps and reflecting substantially higher advertising ROI and the strength of our topline performance
• GAAP operating margin of 15.6%; non-GAAP operating margin of 15.7%, more than double that of last year and the highest quarterly operating margin performance outside of a holiday fourth quarter
• GAAP diluted EPS of $2.54; non-GAAP diluted EPS of $2.56, over 150% higher than last year
• Maintained strong liquidity position of $773 million in cash, including approximately $727 million in operating cash flow resulting from our strong performance year to date, enabling the company to repay in full all short-term borrowings under its $500 million revolver, reinstate its share repurchase program and repurchase $109 million in shares in the third quarter, and commit to increasing its next quarterly dividend payment by 10% to $0.53 per share

GUIDANCE

Given the dynamic nature of the COVID-19 crisis and the continuing macroeconomic uncertainty that could impact its performance, the company is not providing guidance for fiscal year 2020.

Long-Term Financial Guidance

• Total net revenues growth of mid to high single digits
• Non-GAAP operating margin expansion
• Above-industry average ROIC (See Exhibit 1)

CONFERENCE CALL AND WEBCAST INFORMATION

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. will host a live conference call today, November 19, 2020, at 2:00 P.M. (PT). The call, hosted by Laura Alber, President and Chief Executive Officer, will be open to the general public via live webcast and can be accessed at http://ir.williams-sonomainc.com/events. A replay of the webcast will be available at http://ir.williams-sonomainc.com/events.

SEC REGULATION G — NON-GAAP INFORMATION

This press release includes non-GAAP financial measures. Exhibit 1 provides reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable financial measures calculated and presented in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. (“GAAP”). We have not provided a reconciliation of non-GAAP guidance measures to the corresponding GAAP measures on a forward-looking basis due to the potential variability and limited visibility of excluded items; these excluded items include expenses related to the acquisition of Outward, Inc., severance-related reorganization expenses, inventory-related charges and store asset impairments due to the impact of COVID-19, and net income tax expense (benefit) associated with tax legislation changes and non-recurring tax adjustments. We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures, when reviewed in conjunction with GAAP financial measures, can provide meaningful supplemental information for investors regarding the performance of our business and facilitate a meaningful evaluation of current period performance on a comparable basis with prior periods. Our management uses these non-GAAP financial measures in order to have comparable financial results to analyze changes in our underlying business from quarter to quarter. In addition, certain other items may be excluded from non-GAAP financial measures when the company believes this provides greater clarity to management and investors. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered as a supplement to, and not as a substitute for or superior to the GAAP financial measures presented in this press release and our financial statements and other publicly filed reports. Non-GAAP measures as presented herein may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they do not fully materialize or are proven incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include statements relating to: our ability to capture significant opportunities in the home furnishings industry and increase our market share; our ability to continue to improve performance; the sustainability of our online growth; our ability to fill all of the orders placed in the quarter; the quality of our product pipeline, marketing efforts and omnichannel experience; the impact of COVID-19 on our business, including the impact on our supply chain and ability to deliver product timely and the potential for decreased demand for our products once the pandemic lessens and consumers return to normal purchasing patterns; our competitive advantages; our focus on operational excellence; our ability to improve customers’ experience; industry trends; our optimism about the future; our ability to maximize growth and maintain high profitability; our commitment to increase quarterly dividend payments; and our long-term financial targets.

The risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include: continuing changes in general economic conditions, and the impact on consumer confidence and consumer spending; the impact of the coronavirus on our global supply chain, retail store operations and customer demand and our ability to respond to such impact, new interpretations of or changes to current accounting rules; our ability to anticipate consumer preferences and buying trends; dependence on timely introduction and customer acceptance of our merchandise; changes in consumer spending based on weather, political, competitive and other conditions beyond our control; delays in store openings; competition from companies with concepts or products similar to ours; timely and effective sourcing of merchandise from our foreign and domestic vendors and delivery of merchandise through our supply chain to our stores and customers; effective inventory management; our ability to manage customer returns; successful catalog management, including timing, sizing and merchandising; uncertainties in e-marketing, infrastructure and regulation; multi-channel and multi-brand complexities; our ability to introduce new brands and brand extensions; challenges associated with our increasing global presence; dependence on external funding sources for operating capital; disruptions in the financial markets; our ability to control employment, occupancy and other operating costs; our ability to improve our systems and processes; changes to our information technology infrastructure; general political, economic and market conditions and events, including war, conflict or acts of terrorism and the impact of the results of the U.S. presidential election; the impact of current and potential future tariffs and our ability to mitigate impacts; and other risks and uncertainties described more fully in our public announcements, reports to stockholders and other documents filed with or furnished to the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended February 2, 2020 and all subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K. We have not filed our Form 10-Q for the quarter ended November 1, 2020. As a result, all financial results described here should be considered preliminary, and are subject to change to reflect any necessary adjustments or changes in accounting estimates that are identified prior to the time we file the Form 10-Q. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof, and we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

ABOUT WILLIAMS-SONOMA, INC.

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is a specialty retailer of high-quality products for the home. These products, representing distinct merchandise strategies — Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, West Elm, Pottery Barn Teen, Williams Sonoma Home, Rejuvenation, and Mark and Graham — are marketed through e-commerce websites, direct-mail catalogs and retail stores. These brands are also part of The Key Rewards, our free-to-join loyalty program that offers members exclusive benefits across the Williams-Sonoma family of brands. We operate in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, offer international shipping to customers worldwide, and have unaffiliated franchisees that operate stores in the Middle East, the Philippines, Mexico and South Korea, as well as e-commerce websites in certain locations.

SEC Regulation G – Non-GAAP Information

These tables include non-GAAP gross profit, gross margin, selling, general and administrative expense, operating income, operating margin, income taxes, effective tax rate and diluted EPS. We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures provide meaningful supplemental information for investors regarding the performance of our business and facilitate a meaningful evaluation of our quarterly actual results on a comparable basis with prior periods. Our management uses these non-GAAP financial measures in order to have comparable financial results to analyze changes in our underlying business from quarter to quarter. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered as a supplement to, and not as a substitute for, or superior to, financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP.

Notes to Exhibit 1:

1. During Q3 and year-to-date 2020, we incurred approximately $2.2 million and $8.9 million, respectively, associated with acquisition-related compensation expense and the amortization of acquired intangibles for Outward, Inc. and, during Q3 and year-to-date 2019, we incurred approximately $7.4 million and $21.0 million associated with acquisition-related compensation expense and the amortization of acquired intangibles, as well as the operations of Outward, Inc.
2. During Q3 and year-to-date 2019, we incurred approximately $0.6 million and $7.8 million, respectively, of employment-related expense that was primarily associated with severance-related reorganization expenses.
3. During year-to-date 2020, we incurred approximately $11.4 million of inventory write-offs for inventory with minor damage that we could not liquidate through our outlets due to store closures resulting from COVID-19.
4. During year-to-date 2020, we incurred approximately $22.0 million of expense associated with store asset impairments due to the impact that COVID-19 had on our retail stores.
5. During Q3 and year-to-date 2020, we recorded an approximate $0.6 million tax benefit resulting from a non-recurring adjustment to a deferred tax liability.
6. During Q3 and year-to-date 2019, we recorded a net income tax expense of approximately $0.1 million, associated with tax legislation changes.

Return on Invested Capital (“ROIC”)

We believe ROIC is a useful financial measure for investors in evaluating the efficient and effective use of capital, and is an important component of long-term shareholder return. We define ROIC as non-GAAP net operating profit after tax (NOPAT), divided by our average invested capital. NOPAT is defined as non-GAAP operating income, plus rent expense, less estimated taxes at the company’s effective tax rate. Average invested capital is defined as the two-year average of total assets less current liabilities, plus capitalized leases, less cash in excess of $200 million.

ROIC is not a measure of financial performance under GAAP, and should be considered in addition to, and not as a substitute for other financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. Our method of determining ROIC may differ from other companies’ methods and therefore may not be comparable.

WSM-IR

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