Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) Trading Up 2.6% Following Analyst Upgrade

The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW) traded up 2.6% during trading on Wednesday after TD Cowen raised their price target on the stock from $87.00 to $92.00. TD Cowen currently has a buy rating on the stock. Charles Schwab traded as high as $73.26 and last traded at $73.07. 12,021,566 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 80% from the average session volume of 6,668,537 shares. The stock had previously closed at $71.23.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on SCHW. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Charles Schwab from $86.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Charles Schwab from $65.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Charles Schwab from $75.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Raymond James reduced their price objective on shares of Charles Schwab from $78.00 to $75.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $71.00 price objective (up previously from $70.00) on shares of Charles Schwab in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $74.47.

Insider Activity at Charles Schwab

In other Charles Schwab news, Director Carolyn Schwab-Pomerantz sold 9,000 shares of Charles Schwab stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.87, for a total transaction of $637,830.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 581,457 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $41,207,857.59. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Charles Schwab news, Chairman Charles R. Schwab sold 71,226 shares of Charles Schwab stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.99, for a total transaction of $4,628,977.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 61,251,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,980,704,959.62. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Carolyn Schwab-Pomerantz sold 9,000 shares of Charles Schwab stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.87, for a total transaction of $637,830.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 581,457 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $41,207,857.59. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 216,584 shares of company stock valued at $14,200,769. 6.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Charles Schwab

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Main Street Group LTD bought a new stake in shares of Charles Schwab during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Charles Schwab by 60.0% in the fourth quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC now owns 440 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Charles Schwab in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Charles Schwab in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Hall Laurie J Trustee bought a new stake in shares of Charles Schwab in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. 84.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Charles Schwab Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.43 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $68.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $62.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $128.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.01.

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 17th. The financial services provider reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $4.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.49 billion. Charles Schwab had a return on equity of 19.86% and a net margin of 26.14%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 18.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.07 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that The Charles Schwab Co. will post 3.4 EPS for the current year.

Charles Schwab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 9th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.38%. Charles Schwab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.84%.

About Charles Schwab

The Charles Schwab Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a savings and loan holding company that provides wealth management, securities brokerage, banking, asset management, custody, and financial advisory services in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Investor Services and Advisor Services.