West Family Investments Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW)

West Family Investments Inc. raised its stake in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW) by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 387 shares during the period. West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings in Charles Schwab were worth $292,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SCHW. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Charles Schwab by 4.2% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 72,306,560 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,230,657,000 after buying an additional 2,946,327 shares during the period. Darsana Capital Partners LP boosted its position in Charles Schwab by 200.0% in the 2nd quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 3,000,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $221,070,000 after buying an additional 2,000,000 shares during the period. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd boosted its position in Charles Schwab by 2,617.6% in the 3rd quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 1,707,771 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $110,681,000 after buying an additional 1,644,931 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 231.2% in the 1st quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 1,498,929 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $108,433,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046,322 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 21.2% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,395,138 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $390,856,000 after purchasing an additional 944,048 shares during the period. 84.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $68.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. StockNews.com raised shares of Charles Schwab from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Charles Schwab currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $74.18.

Charles Schwab Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of Charles Schwab stock opened at $80.18 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The Charles Schwab Co. has a 12-month low of $55.42 and a 12-month high of $82.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $142.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.32, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.96. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $69.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $69.67.

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.02. Charles Schwab had a net margin of 27.47% and a return on equity of 16.92%. The business had revenue of $4.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.77 EPS. Charles Schwab’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that The Charles Schwab Co. will post 3.12 EPS for the current year.

Charles Schwab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th. Charles Schwab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 39.06%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Carolyn Schwab-Pomerantz sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.05, for a total value of $576,450.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 554,929 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,543,202.45. This represents a 1.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Charles R. Schwab sold 62,345 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.52, for a total transaction of $4,521,259.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 60,619,371 shares in the company, valued at $4,396,116,784.92. This trade represents a 0.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 103,645 shares of company stock valued at $7,440,627 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 6.60% 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.