West Oak Capital LLC Trims Holdings in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW)

West Oak Capital LLC lowered its holdings in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW) by 66.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 11,545 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 23,027 shares during the quarter. West Oak Capital LLC’s holdings in Charles Schwab were worth $854,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in SCHW. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Charles Schwab by 62.6% during the third quarter. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. now owns 387 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 149 shares in the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in Charles Schwab during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in Charles Schwab in the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Charles Schwab in the 3rd quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Charles Schwab during the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. 84.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Charles Schwab

In other news, Chairman Charles R. Schwab sold 62,345 shares of Charles Schwab stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.52, for a total transaction of $4,521,259.40. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 60,619,371 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,396,116,784.92. The trade was a 0.10 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Carolyn Schwab-Pomerantz sold 29,800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.16, for a total transaction of $2,150,368.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 551,329 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,783,900.64. This represents a 5.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 118,968 shares of company stock worth $8,842,821. 6.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Charles Schwab Stock Performance

SCHW stock traded down $0.21 on Friday, hitting $72.79. The company had a trading volume of 10,866,005 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,482,011. The stock has a market cap of $129.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.99. 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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $77.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $70.65. The Charles Schwab Co. has a 12-month low of $59.67 and a 12-month high of $83.35.

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 company posted $0.77 earnings per share. Charles Schwab’s revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that The Charles Schwab Co. will post 3.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Charles Schwab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Charles Schwab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.06%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SCHW has been the subject of a number of research reports. Raymond James decreased their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $76.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Barclays upgraded Charles Schwab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $74.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Truist Financial upgraded Charles Schwab to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $87.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Charles Schwab from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Charles Schwab has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.69.

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.