HighTower Advisors LLC Has $29.66 Million Stock Holdings in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW)

HighTower Advisors LLC cut its stake in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 400,713 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 5,635 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Charles Schwab were worth $29,657,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Charles Schwab by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 6,673,901 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $432,536,000 after acquiring an additional 38,201 shares during the last quarter. United Bank grew its position in Charles Schwab by 13.0% during the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 11,352 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $736,000 after acquiring an additional 1,309 shares during the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. grew its position in Charles Schwab by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 7,612 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $493,000 after acquiring an additional 493 shares during the last quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Charles Schwab by 20.7% during the 3rd quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 10,728 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $695,000 after acquiring an additional 1,841 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kovack Advisors Inc. grew its position in Charles Schwab by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 4,275 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $277,000 after acquiring an additional 386 shares during the last quarter. 84.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Charles Schwab from $87.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group upped their price target on Charles Schwab from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. TD Cowen upgraded Charles Schwab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $88.00 to $103.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Citigroup upped their price target on Charles Schwab from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Charles Schwab from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $86.33.

Charles Schwab Price Performance

NYSE:SCHW opened at $77.28 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $140.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.85, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.98. The Charles Schwab Co. has a 52-week low of $61.01 and a 52-week high of $84.50. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $78.47 and a 200 day moving average of $74.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.47.

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $5.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.19 billion. Charles Schwab had a return on equity of 18.20% and a net margin of 30.31%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.68 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that The Charles Schwab Co. will post 4.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Charles Schwab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is a positive change from Charles Schwab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.40%. Charles Schwab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.12%.

Insider Activity at Charles Schwab

In other Charles Schwab news, Chairman Walter W. Bettinger sold 464,629 shares of Charles Schwab stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was 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. The trade was a 35.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Peter J. Morgan III sold 14,643 shares of Charles Schwab stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.70, for a total value of $1,181,690.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 501,087 shares of company stock valued at $40,952,233. Company 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.