Williams- Sonoma Beats Estimates

Williams-Sonoma Inc. reported a sharper-than-expected jump in quarterly profit and raised its forecasts for the current quarter and full year, sending its stock up 11%.

Good Guys Inc., the consumer electronics giant based in Alameda, Calif., also posted healthy quarterly results and raised its outlook, giving its shares a boost.

San Francisco-based Williams-Sonoma said it benefited from fewer markdowns and surging sales at its upscale Pottery Barn stores in the latest quarter.

The housewares retailer posted net income of $15.4 million, or 13 cents a share, for the quarter ended May 5, compared with $492,000, or break-even, a year earlier.

Analysts on average were expecting 9 cents, according to Thomson Financial/First Call.

Home products retailers were among the few to benefit after the Sept. 11 attacks, with Americans traveling less and spending more time on their homes.

Williams-Sonoma’s shares, which have gained more than 50% this year, finished up $3.09 at $32.12, one of the top percentage gainers on the New York Stock Exchange. Earlier in the day, the stock hit an all-time high of $32.62.

Sales jumped 20% to $267.6 million, the company said. Sales at stores open at least a year grew 6.2%.

The biggest increase in same-store sales was 11.9% at Pottery Barn. Same-store sales inched up 1.7% at Williams-Sonoma and slid 11% at its upscale storage unit Hold Everything.

The retailer boosted its fiscal second-quarter earnings estimate to 7 cents to 8 cents, from 4 cents to 5 cents, on expectations of higher revenue growth. Analysts had forecast 5 cents.

For the full year, Williams-Sonoma now expects profit of 95 cents to 98 cents, up from 85 cents to 88 cents.

Good Guys reported a 17% rise in operating earnings to $8 million, or 4 cents a share, for its fiscal fourth quarter even as sales declined 6.8% to $259.2 million.

Shares of Good Guys jumped 30 cents, or 9.7%, to $3.40 on heavy trading on Nasdaq.

The company said that it expects to report growth in same-store sales and improved profit in the current quarter.

Good Guys also announced that it has received a four-year extension on its $100-million credit facility from Bank of America and GE Capital, which will allow it to offer more products during the holiday season, borrow more money to pay for inventory, improve efficiencies and lower costs.

In the latest quarter, which ended Feb. 28, Good Guys reported an accounting reserve of $18.1 million for potential costs of a plan to close unprofitable stores, which resulted in a net loss of $17.3 million, or 74 cents a share.

Same-store sales fell 7%, but showed improvement in the last month of the quarter.

Other California retailers reporting quarterly earnings:

* Petco Animal Supplies Inc. said profit more than tripled to $8.7million, or 15 cents a share, in its fiscal first quarter, from $2.9million, or 5 cents, a year ago, beating analyst expectations by 2 cents. The latest results exclude $24.4million in one-time charges. Sales rose 15% to $349.2 million, and same-store sales were up 9.3%.

* Wet Seal Inc., whose namesake and Arden B. stores sell clothes for young women and teenage girls, said fiscal first-quarter profit surged 63% to $8.72 million, or 28 cents a share, beating analysts’ forecast of 26 cents. Sales grew 13.6% to $156.6 million, the Foothill Ranch company said. Same-store sales jumped 8.2%.