Valeo Financial Advisors LLC Purchases 303 Shares of The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW)

Valeo Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 38,565 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 303 shares during the period. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Charles Schwab were worth $2,854,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Charles Schwab by 15.0% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 24,261,234 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,644,674,000 after buying an additional 3,157,923 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in Charles Schwab by 6.3% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd raised its stake 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 worth $110,681,000 after purchasing an additional 1,644,931 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its stake in Charles Schwab by 186.7% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,138,033 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $158,236,000 after purchasing an additional 1,392,255 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP acquired a new stake in Charles Schwab in the 3rd quarter worth about $86,845,000. Institutional investors own 84.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Charles Schwab from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Charles Schwab from $84.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Charles Schwab from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Charles Schwab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $89.00 to $93.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $94.00 price objective (up from $84.00) on shares of Charles Schwab in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $84.56.

Charles Schwab Stock Performance

SCHW opened at $80.32 on Friday. 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 company’s fifty day moving average price is $78.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $72.25. The Charles Schwab Co. has a 1-year low of $61.01 and a 1-year high of $84.50. The company has a market cap of $142.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.86, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.99.

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.11. Charles Schwab had a net margin of 30.31% and a return on equity of 18.20%. The firm had revenue of $5.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.19 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.68 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 19.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that The Charles Schwab Co. will post 4.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Charles Schwab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. 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 yield of 1.34%. Charles Schwab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.44%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Walter W. Bettinger sold 464,629 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.91, for a total value of $38,057,761.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 827,377 shares in the company, valued at $67,770,450.07. This represents 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, insider Nigel J. Murtagh sold 12,739 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 59,092 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,796,497.64. This represents a 17.73 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 512,143 shares of company stock worth $41,917,493. 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.