Variant Private Wealth LLC Purchases New Holdings in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW)

Variant Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 10,452 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $774,000. Charles Schwab comprises 0.7% of Variant Private Wealth LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 29th biggest position.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SCHW. Eastern Bank bought a new stake in shares of Charles Schwab in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $109,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Charles Schwab by 7,559.9% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 889,779 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $57,667,000 after purchasing an additional 878,163 shares during the period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Charles Schwab by 53.0% in the 3rd quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 52,307 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,390,000 after purchasing an additional 18,119 shares during the period. DT Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Charles Schwab by 24.0% in the 3rd quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,545 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $100,000 after purchasing an additional 299 shares during the period. Finally, Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Charles Schwab by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 64,336 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,170,000 after purchasing an additional 2,385 shares during the period. 84.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman Walter W. Bettinger sold 464,629 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.91, for a total value of $38,057,761.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 827,377 shares in the company, valued at approximately $67,770,450.07. This trade represents a 35.96 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Jonathan S. Beatty sold 2,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, 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. Insiders sold 490,120 shares of company stock worth $40,127,472 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 6.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on SCHW. TD Cowen raised Charles Schwab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $88.00 to $103.00 in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group upped their price objective on Charles Schwab from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Charles Schwab from $87.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Charles Schwab from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Charles Schwab from $84.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $86.33.

Charles Schwab Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SCHW opened at $80.50 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $143.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.92, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.99. The business has a 50-day moving average of $77.98 and a 200-day moving average of $72.95. 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 Charles Schwab Co. has a fifty-two week low of $61.01 and a fifty-two week high of $84.50.

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $5.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.19 billion. Charles Schwab had a return on equity of 18.20% and a net margin of 30.31%. Charles Schwab’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.68 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that The Charles Schwab Co. will post 4.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Charles Schwab Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. This is a boost from Charles Schwab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.34%. Charles Schwab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.12%.

Charles Schwab Company 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.