The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW) Plans Dividend Increase – $0.27 Per Share

The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 29th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.27 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.31%. This is a boost from Charles Schwab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25.

Charles Schwab has raised its dividend by an average of 11.6% per year over the last three years. Charles Schwab has a dividend payout ratio of 19.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Charles Schwab to earn $5.11 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 19.6%.

Charles Schwab Trading Up 0.5 %

Charles Schwab stock traded up $0.43 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $82.13. The stock had a trading volume of 8,717,347 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,207,134. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $77.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $70.92. Charles Schwab has a twelve month low of $61.01 and a twelve month high of $83.35. The firm has a market cap of $146.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.47, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.47 and a quick ratio of 0.47.

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $5.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.19 billion. Charles Schwab had a net margin of 30.31% and a return on equity of 18.20%. Charles Schwab’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.68 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Charles Schwab will post 4.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on SCHW. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $84.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Cowen increased their price objective on Charles Schwab from $69.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Charles Schwab from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $94.00 price objective (up from $84.00) on shares of Charles Schwab in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Charles Schwab from $74.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Charles Schwab has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $84.11.

Insider Activity at Charles Schwab

In other news, Director Christopher V. Dodds sold 9,284 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.43, for a total transaction of $755,996.12. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 442,807 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,057,774.01. This represents a 2.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Arun Sarin sold 8,548 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.82, for a total transaction of $699,397.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 18,617 shares in the company, valued at $1,523,242.94. This represents a 31.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 50,014 shares of company stock worth $4,052,281. 6.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.