Tower Bridge Advisors Lowers Stock Position in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW)

Tower Bridge Advisors lessened its stake in shares of The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW) by 4.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 121,543 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 6,316 shares during the quarter. Tower Bridge Advisors’ holdings in Charles Schwab were worth $8,995,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of SCHW. Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 230.1% during the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 33,546 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,483,000 after purchasing an additional 23,383 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 2,840.7% during the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 6,146 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $398,000 after purchasing 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. Oregon Pacific Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Charles Schwab during the fourth quarter worth about $688,000. Finally, Golden State Equity Partners lifted its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 293.9% during the fourth quarter. Golden State Equity Partners now owns 12,207 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $903,000 after purchasing an additional 9,108 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on SCHW shares. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Charles Schwab from $84.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Charles Schwab from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Charles Schwab from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Charles Schwab from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $86.33.

Charles Schwab Stock Performance

NYSE:SCHW opened at $79.71 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $78.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $73.54. The Charles Schwab Co. has a 1-year low of $61.01 and a 1-year high of $84.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.47 and a quick ratio of 0.47. The firm has a market cap of $141.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.99.

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.11. Charles Schwab had a net margin of 30.31% and a return on equity of 18.20%. The firm had revenue of $5.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.19 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.68 EPS. Charles Schwab’s quarterly revenue was up 19.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that The Charles Schwab Co. will post 4.22 EPS for the current year.

Charles Schwab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.35%. This is an increase from Charles Schwab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Charles Schwab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Charles Schwab

In other Charles Schwab news, Director Arun Sarin sold 8,548 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.82, for a total value of $699,397.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 18,617 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,523,242.94. This trade represents a 31.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Walter W. Bettinger sold 464,629 shares of Charles Schwab stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.91, for a total value of $38,057,761.39. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 827,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $67,770,450.07. This trade represents a 35.96 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 487,820 shares of company stock valued at $39,938,849. 6.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Charles Schwab Profile

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.