Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC Lowers Position in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW)

Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in shares of The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW) by 10.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,598 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 432 shares during the period. Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Charles Schwab were worth $266,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of SCHW. Synergy Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Charles Schwab in the fourth quarter worth $63,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Charles Schwab by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,133,490 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $601,960,000 after purchasing an additional 239,968 shares during the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Charles Schwab by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 153,108 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $11,332,000 after purchasing an additional 9,130 shares in the last quarter. Unified Investment Management bought a new position in shares of Charles Schwab during the 4th quarter valued at about $615,000. Finally, Schechter Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 8.4% during the 4th quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,614 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,008,000 after purchasing an additional 1,058 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.38% of the company’s stock.

Charles Schwab Stock Performance

NYSE:SCHW opened at $75.53 on Friday. 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 firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $78.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $73.86. The stock has a market cap of $136.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.98. The Charles Schwab Co. has a twelve month low of $61.01 and a twelve month high of $84.50.

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) last announced its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $5.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.19 billion. Charles Schwab had a net margin of 30.31% and a return on equity of 18.20%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.68 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that The Charles Schwab Co. will post 4.22 EPS for the current year.

Charles Schwab Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is an increase from Charles Schwab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.43%. Charles Schwab’s dividend payout ratio is 36.12%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on SCHW shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Charles Schwab from $87.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Charles Schwab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $89.00 to $93.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased 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. Redburn Partners lowered their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $70.00 to $68.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target 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 equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $86.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, General Counsel Peter J. Morgan III sold 14,643 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.70, for a total transaction of $1,181,690.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Walter W. Bettinger sold 464,629 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.91, for a total transaction of $38,057,761.39. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 827,377 shares in the company, valued at $67,770,450.07. The trade was a 35.96 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 491,200 shares of company stock worth $40,206,950. Company insiders own 6.60% of the company’s stock.

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.