Schwab's Shares Falling After Earnings Miss

Shares of Charles Schwab(SCH Quote), the leading U.S. discount and Internet broker, were recently down 3.3% to $24.31 after the company's earlier announcement that its fourth-quarter profit fell 27%.

The San Francisco-based brokerage said its operating income for the quarter was $161 million, or 11 cents a share, on revenues of $1.33 billion, compared with operating income of $191 million, or 14 cents a share, on revenues of $1.27 billion in the same period last year.

The company's earnings fell short of a consensus estimate of analysts compiled by First Call/Thomson Financial, which called for fourth-quarter earnings of 12 cents a share.

Schwab received $41 billion net new assets during the fourth quarter, up from $33 billion in the same period last year and received a record $171 billion in new assets in 2000. The company has about 7.5 million brokerage accounts and $872 billion in assets.

Like many other companies this earnings season, Schwab blamed a slowing economy and a slump in the stock market for its disappointing quarter. Another reason for the downturn was a drop in trading and brokerage commission revenues, the company said.

Yesterday, online brokerage firm Ameritrade(AMTD Quote) posted a loss of 13 cents a share for its first fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31, blaming the recent Nasdaq slump and the drawn-out decline in technology stocks for its widening losses.