Arete Wealth Advisors LLC Decreases Stake in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW)

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC reduced its position in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW) by 21.4% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,949 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,349 shares during the period. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Charles Schwab were worth $321,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 414,949 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,141,441 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,945,614,000 after purchasing an additional 445,304 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 6.3% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 28,679,305 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,858,706,000 after purchasing an additional 1,711,312 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 2.5% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 20,189,558 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,308,485,000 after purchasing an additional 493,264 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 2.1% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,886,058 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $802,193,000 after purchasing an additional 225,397 shares during the last quarter. 84.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Carolyn Schwab-Pomerantz sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.05, for a total value of $576,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 554,929 shares in the company, valued at $35,543,202.45. This represents a 1.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Jonathan S. Beatty sold 2,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.01, for a total value of $188,623.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 18,069 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,481,838.69. This trade represents a 11.29 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 127,968 shares of company stock worth $9,419,271. 6.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on SCHW shares. Cowen increased their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $69.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Charles Schwab from $75.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Charles Schwab from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Charles Schwab from $67.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.75.

Charles Schwab Trading Down 4.0 %

Shares of SCHW stock opened at $79.54 on Friday. 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 Charles Schwab Co. has a 1 year low of $59.67 and a 1 year high of $83.35. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $75.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $70.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $141.55 billion, a PE ratio of 31.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.96.

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.02. Charles Schwab had a return on equity of 16.92% and a net margin of 27.47%. The company had revenue of $4.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.77 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that The Charles Schwab Co. will post 3.12 EPS for the current year.

Charles Schwab Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.26%. Charles Schwab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.06%.

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.