Proficio Capital Partners LLC Makes New Investment in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 441,058 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $32,643,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SCHW. Principal Securities Inc. grew its stake in Charles Schwab by 4.7% during the third quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 128,180 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,307,000 after buying an additional 5,798 shares during the last quarter. Lebenthal Global Advisors LLC grew its stake in Charles Schwab by 6.2% during the third quarter. Lebenthal Global Advisors LLC now owns 16,603 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,076,000 after buying an additional 964 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in Charles Schwab by 2.8% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 27,350 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,773,000 after buying an additional 751 shares during the last quarter. VELA Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Charles Schwab by 1.3% during the third quarter. VELA Investment Management LLC now owns 23,657 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,533,000 after buying an additional 313 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Biechele Royce Advisors grew its stake in Charles Schwab by 10.0% during the third quarter. Biechele Royce Advisors now owns 210,531 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $13,644,000 after buying an additional 19,061 shares during the last quarter. 84.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on SCHW shares. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Charles Schwab from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Charles Schwab from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $94.00 target price (up from $84.00) on shares of Charles Schwab in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Charles Schwab from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Charles Schwab has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus 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 on Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.91, for a total transaction of $38,057,761.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 827,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $67,770,450.07. This represents a 35.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Arun Sarin sold 8,548 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.82, for a total transaction of $699,397.36. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 18,617 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,523,242.94. This represents a 31.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 487,820 shares of company stock worth $39,938,849. Company insiders own 6.60% of the company’s stock.

Charles Schwab Trading Up 1.6 %

SCHW opened at $79.71 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $78.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $73.54. 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 firm has a market cap of $141.99 billion, a PE ratio of 26.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.99. 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 posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.11. The company 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.68 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate 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 $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from Charles Schwab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.35%. Charles Schwab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.