Pacer Advisors Inc. Buys 8,223 Shares of The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW)

Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW) by 7.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 119,588 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 8,223 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Charles Schwab were worth $8,851,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. United Asset Strategies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Charles Schwab by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. now owns 188,239 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $13,932,000 after acquiring an additional 2,497 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its position in Charles Schwab by 186.7% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,138,033 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $158,236,000 after purchasing an additional 1,392,255 shares during the last quarter. Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Charles Schwab during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $202,000. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Charles Schwab by 20.7% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 23,565 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,744,000 after purchasing an additional 4,048 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management raised its holdings in Charles Schwab by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 104,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,759,000 after buying an additional 3,587 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on SCHW shares. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Charles Schwab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $89.00 to $93.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Bank of America reduced their price target on Charles Schwab from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 price objective (up previously from $86.00) on shares of Charles Schwab in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Citigroup upped their target price on Charles Schwab from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Charles Schwab from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $84.11.

Charles Schwab Stock Up 0.5 %

SCHW stock opened at $82.13 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The business has a 50 day moving average of $77.86 and a 200 day moving average of $70.92. The Charles Schwab Co. has a twelve month low of $61.01 and a twelve month high of $83.35. The firm has a market cap of $146.17 billion, a PE ratio of 27.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 0.99.

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.11. Charles Schwab had a return on equity of 18.20% and a net margin of 30.31%. The firm had revenue of $5.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.19 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.68 EPS. Charles Schwab’s quarterly revenue was up 19.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that The Charles Schwab Co. will post 4.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Charles Schwab Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.31%. This is an increase from Charles Schwab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Charles Schwab’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.44%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Arun Sarin sold 8,548 shares of Charles Schwab stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were 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 directly owns 18,617 shares in the company, valued at $1,523,242.94. The trade was a 31.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Peter J. Morgan III sold 14,643 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.70, for a total transaction of $1,181,690.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 50,014 shares of company stock worth $4,052,281 over the last 90 days. 6.60% of the stock is currently 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.