Inspire Advisors LLC Buys 678 Shares of The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW)

Inspire Advisors LLC raised its position in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW) by 3.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 19,808 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 678 shares during the quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC’s holdings in Charles Schwab were worth $1,466,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp grew its stake in Charles Schwab by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 62,076,447 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,023,175,000 after buying an additional 414,949 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Charles Schwab by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,141,441 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,945,614,000 after acquiring an additional 445,304 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Charles Schwab by 6.3% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 28,679,305 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,858,706,000 after acquiring an additional 1,711,312 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Charles Schwab by 15.0% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 24,261,234 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,644,674,000 after acquiring an additional 3,157,923 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Charles Schwab by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 20,455,266 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,513,894,000 after buying an additional 265,708 shares during the last quarter. 84.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Charles Schwab Stock Performance

NYSE:SCHW opened at $71.40 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.47. The company has a fifty day moving average of $78.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $74.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $129.49 billion, a PE ratio of 23.88, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.98. 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 issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $5.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.19 billion. Charles Schwab had a net margin of 30.31% and a return on equity of 18.20%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 19.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.68 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that The Charles Schwab Co. will post 4.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Charles Schwab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.51%. This is a boost from Charles Schwab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. Charles Schwab’s dividend payout ratio is 36.12%.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Peter J. Morgan III sold 14,643 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.70, for a total value of $1,181,690.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Paul V. Woolway sold 9,887 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.38, for a total transaction of $745,282.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 47,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,613,038.78. This represents a 17.10 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 501,087 shares of company stock worth $40,952,233 over the last three months. Insiders own 6.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on SCHW shares. Barclays raised their target price on Charles Schwab from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $94.00 price target (up from $84.00) on shares of Charles Schwab in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Redburn Partners dropped their target price on Charles Schwab from $70.00 to $68.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 17th. 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 research note on Monday, January 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $86.33.

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.