Investing.com -- Shares in Williams-Sonoma Inc (NYSE:WSM) posted modest gains in after-hours trading after the San Francisco based kitchen wares and home furnishing retailer beat first quarter earnings expectations and reiterated its full-year guidance on Wednesday.
During the company's opening quarter of Fiscal Year 2016, Williams-Sonoma reported earnings of $39.6 million or 0.44 per share, down slightly from net profits of $44.8 million or 0.48 per share over the same period a year earlier. The company also finished with adjusted per share earnings of 0.53, when certain items were excluded. It came as operating margin fell to 5.8%, down sharply on a year-over-basis from 7% over the first quarter from 2015. Williams-Sonoma is coming off a year when its annual operating margin fell into single-digits for the first time in five years.
At the same time, the company's revenue soared by 6.5% to $1.1 billion amid robust same-store sales. At Williams-Sonoma's Pottery Brand division, comparative store sales inched up by 0.2%, swinging positive one quarter after suffering losses of 2%. For the three-month period, same-store sales at West Elm surged by 19% while comp sales at the namesake Williams-Sonoma segment jumped 3.5%. The company expected to see revenues between $1.07 and $1.09 billion adjusted earnings per share of 0.48 and 0.52.
"In the first quarter we saw accelerated growth in West Elm and Williams-Sonoma, as well as improvement across the Pottery Barn brands. We also saw positive results from our inventory and supply chain initiatives," Williams-Sonoma CEO Laura Alber said in a statement. "We believe our strong brands and profitable multi-channel strategy create a sustainable competitive advantage. We are executing against our key growth and profitability initiatives, and believe we are on track to deliver on both our near and longer-term goals."
Moving forward, Williams-Sonoma expects to report annual adjusted earnings of $3.60 to $3.65 per share on revenue in between $5.15 billion and $5.25 billion.
Shares in Williams-Sonoma rose by 1.22 or 2.40% to 52.09.