Apriem Advisors Boosts Stake in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW)

Apriem Advisors boosted its holdings in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW) by 2.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,929 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 211 shares during the quarter. Apriem Advisors’ holdings in Charles Schwab were worth $587,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Charles Schwab during the 4th quarter worth approximately $46,000. Pointe Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Charles Schwab by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. Pointe Capital Management LLC now owns 8,541 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $632,000 after purchasing an additional 1,011 shares in the last quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC grew its holdings in Charles Schwab by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC now owns 14,219 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,052,000 after purchasing an additional 376 shares during the last quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Charles Schwab in the fourth quarter valued at $356,000. Finally, Lake Street Advisors Group LLC increased its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC now owns 13,183 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $976,000 after buying an additional 317 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SCHW has been the topic of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Charles Schwab from $87.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $84.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Charles Schwab from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Charles Schwab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $88.00 to $103.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Charles Schwab from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $86.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Walter W. Bettinger sold 464,629 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 827,377 shares in the company, valued at approximately $67,770,450.07. This trade represents a 35.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, General Counsel Peter J. Morgan III sold 14,643 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.70, for a total value of $1,181,690.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 487,820 shares of company stock worth $39,938,849 over the last ninety days. 6.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Charles Schwab Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of SCHW opened at $78.68 on Thursday. The Charles Schwab Co. has a twelve month low of $61.01 and a twelve month high of $84.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $140.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $78.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $73.38.

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

Charles Schwab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.37%. This is a boost from Charles Schwab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Charles Schwab’s payout ratio is 36.12%.

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.