Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) Upgraded by Citigroup to “Buy” Rating

Citigroup upgraded shares of Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports. Citigroup currently has $102.00 target price on the financial services provider’s stock, up from their previous target price of $85.00.

SCHW has been the topic of several other reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Charles Schwab from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Charles Schwab from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Charles Schwab from $84.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $94.00 target price (up previously from $84.00) on shares of Charles Schwab in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $87.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Charles Schwab has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $87.28.

Charles Schwab Stock Performance

Shares of SCHW opened at $78.67 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $79.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $75.69. The firm has a market cap of $142.67 billion, a PE ratio of 26.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.91. Charles Schwab has a 12-month low of $61.01 and a 12-month high of $84.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

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

Charles Schwab Increases Dividend

The firm 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. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. Charles Schwab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Charles Schwab

In other news, Director Arun Sarin sold 8,548 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.82, for a total value of $699,397.36. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 18,617 shares in the company, valued at $1,523,242.94. This represents a 31.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul V. Woolway sold 3,380 shares of Charles Schwab stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.32, for a total value of $268,101.60. Following the sale, the insider now owns 57,818 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,586,123.76. This represents a 5.52 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 513,081 shares of company stock valued at $41,903,066 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 6.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Charles Schwab

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Charles Schwab by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 128,578,230 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,516,075,000 after purchasing an additional 1,187,384 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Charles Schwab by 0.7% during the third 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Charles Schwab by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,901,484 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,279,742,000 after buying an additional 760,043 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Charles Schwab by 15.0% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 24,261,234 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,644,674,000 after buying an additional 3,157,923 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Charles Schwab by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 20,455,266 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,513,894,000 after acquiring an additional 265,708 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.38% of the company’s stock.

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.