Advisors Capital Management LLC Has $10.55 Million Holdings in The Charles Schwab Corporation $SCHW

Advisors Capital Management LLC grew its stake in The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE:SCHW) by 15.9% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 134,787 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 18,451 shares during the quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Charles Schwab were worth $10,551,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SCHW. Atwood & Palmer Inc. bought a new position in shares of Charles Schwab in the first quarter worth about $25,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Charles Schwab by 75.0% in the first quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 350 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. Stone House Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Charles Schwab in the first quarter worth about $31,000. Activest Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of Charles Schwab by 6,650.0% in the first quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 405 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 399 shares during the period. Finally, WFA Asset Management Corp bought a new position in shares of Charles Schwab in the first quarter worth about $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.38% of the company’s stock.

Charles Schwab Stock Up 1.8%

NYSE:SCHW opened at $93.90 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $95.36 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $86.66. The Charles Schwab Corporation has a 52-week low of $61.16 and a 52-week high of $99.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.55. The company has a market cap of $170.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.24, a P/E/G ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 0.96.

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) last issued its earnings results on Friday, July 18th. The financial services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $5.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.64 billion. Charles Schwab had a net margin of 33.68% and a return on equity of 19.30%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.73 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that The Charles Schwab Corporation will post 4.22 EPS for the current year.

Charles Schwab announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, July 24th that permits the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 11.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Charles Schwab Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 8th were paid a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 8th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Charles Schwab’s dividend payout ratio is 29.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Paul V. Woolway sold 10,129 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.01, for a total value of $911,711.29. Following the transaction, the insider owned 39,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,524,251.54. This represents a 20.55% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Nigel J. Murtagh sold 24,096 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.91, for a total value of $2,359,239.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 58,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,776,592.09. This trade represents a 29.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 298,214 shares of company stock worth $29,022,580 over the last 90 days. 6.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on SCHW shares. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Charles Schwab from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. William Blair lowered Charles Schwab from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Barclays boosted their price target on Charles Schwab from $106.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded Charles Schwab from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $65.00 to $82.00 in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Charles Schwab from $117.00 to $131.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $99.60.

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.