Hardy Reed LLC Raises Position in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW)

Hardy Reed LLC raised its holdings in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 13,225 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 166 shares during the quarter. Hardy Reed LLC’s holdings in Charles Schwab were worth $979,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its holdings in shares of Charles Schwab by 11.0% in the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 533,712 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,500,000 after purchasing an additional 52,845 shares in the last quarter. Jacobson & Schmitt Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Charles Schwab by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Jacobson & Schmitt Advisors LLC now owns 162,359 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $12,016,000 after purchasing an additional 718 shares in the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Charles Schwab by 32.4% in the 4th quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 77,685 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,749,000 after purchasing an additional 19,020 shares in the last quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Charles Schwab in the 4th quarter valued at $220,000. Finally, Private Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Charles Schwab by 27.0% in the 4th quarter. Private Wealth Partners LLC now owns 54,528 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,036,000 after purchasing an additional 11,583 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.38% of the company’s stock.

Charles Schwab Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:SCHW opened at $82.03 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $146.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.43, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.99. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $77.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $72.76. 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 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 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $5.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.19 billion. Charles Schwab had a net margin of 30.31% and a return on equity of 18.20%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 19.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.68 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that The Charles Schwab Co. will post 4.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Charles Schwab Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. This is an increase from Charles Schwab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.32%. Charles Schwab’s payout ratio is presently 36.12%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on SCHW. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective 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. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Charles Schwab from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $84.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $84.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $86.33.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Nigel J. Murtagh sold 12,739 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.17, for a total transaction of $1,034,024.63. Following the sale, the insider now owns 59,092 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,796,497.64. The trade was a 17.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jonathan S. Beatty sold 2,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.01, for a total transaction of $188,623.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 18,069 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,481,838.69. This represents a 11.29 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 502,859 shares of company stock valued at $41,161,496 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 6.60% of the company’s stock.

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.