Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Purchases Shares of 3,273 The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC acquired a new position in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW) during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 3,273 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $256,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. OLD National Bancorp IN boosted its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 26.0% during the first quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 16,631 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,302,000 after purchasing an additional 3,428 shares in the last quarter. Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA bought a new position in shares of Charles Schwab in the 1st quarter worth about $208,000. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC lifted its position in Charles Schwab by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 41,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,280,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares during the period. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC boosted its stake in Charles Schwab by 9.7% during the first quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 48,203 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,773,000 after acquiring an additional 4,275 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wedmont Private Capital increased its stake in shares of Charles Schwab by 11.9% during the first quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 16,307 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,255,000 after purchasing an additional 1,739 shares in the last quarter. 84.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on SCHW. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Charles Schwab from $76.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. TD Securities increased their target price on Charles Schwab from $95.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Charles Schwab from $93.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Charles Schwab in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Charles Schwab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.25.

Charles Schwab Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of Charles Schwab stock opened at $88.36 on Thursday. The Charles Schwab Co. has a 1-year low of $61.01 and a 1-year high of $89.85. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $82.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $79.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.47 and a quick ratio of 0.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $160.55 billion, a PE ratio of 29.55, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.94.

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The financial services provider reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.01 by $0.03. Charles Schwab had a return on equity of 18.20% and a net margin of 30.31%. The business had revenue of $5.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.74 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that The Charles Schwab Co. will post 4.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Charles Schwab Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 9th were given a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 9th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.22%. Charles Schwab’s payout ratio is currently 32.73%.

Insider Transactions at Charles Schwab

In other Charles Schwab news, insider Jonathan S. Beatty sold 2,850 shares of Charles Schwab stock in a transaction on Friday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.57, for a total value of $249,574.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 15,219 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,332,727.83. The trade was a 15.77% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, General Counsel Peter J. Morgan III sold 10,176 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.39, for a total transaction of $889,280.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 97,608 shares of company stock valued at $8,392,040 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 6.30% 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.