Smith Thornton Advisors LLC Purchases New Position in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW)

Smith Thornton Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 4,356 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $322,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its position in Charles Schwab by 2,840.7% during the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 6,146 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $398,000 after acquiring an additional 5,937 shares in the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 46.0% during the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 67,889 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,400,000 after purchasing an additional 21,377 shares in the last quarter. Patten & Patten Inc. TN boosted its stake in shares of Charles Schwab by 155.9% in the third quarter. Patten & Patten Inc. TN now owns 104,168 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,751,000 after purchasing an additional 63,463 shares during the period. Equity Investment Corp grew its holdings in Charles Schwab by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 1,640,157 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $106,299,000 after purchasing an additional 140,643 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teewinot Capital Advisers L.L.C. increased its stake in Charles Schwab by 9.0% during the 2nd quarter. Teewinot Capital Advisers L.L.C. now owns 775,161 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $57,122,000 after buying an additional 64,041 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Charles Schwab from $68.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Raymond James reduced their price target on Charles Schwab from $76.00 to $73.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Barclays upgraded Charles Schwab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $74.00 to $95.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Charles Schwab from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $87.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Charles Schwab currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.63.

Charles Schwab Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SCHW opened at $73.75 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $131.25 billion, a PE ratio of 28.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.99. The Charles Schwab Co. has a fifty-two week low of $59.67 and a fifty-two week high of $83.35. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $77.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $70.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $4.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.78 billion. Charles Schwab had a return on equity of 16.92% and a net margin of 27.47%. The business’s revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.77 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Charles Schwab Co. will post 3.13 EPS for the current year.

Charles Schwab Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.36%. Charles Schwab’s payout ratio is currently 39.06%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Charles Schwab

In related news, insider Nigel J. Murtagh sold 12,739 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.17, for a total value of $1,034,024.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 59,092 shares in the company, valued at $4,796,497.64. This represents a 17.73 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jonathan S. Beatty sold 2,300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.01, for a total transaction of $188,623.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 18,069 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,481,838.69. This trade represents a 11.29 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 26,823 shares of company stock worth $2,171,194. 6.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.