Schwab Earnings Top Forecasts as Investors Flock to Markets
Shares of Charles Schwab (SCHW) - Get Report rose Tuesday after the discount securities brokerage reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat expectations.
Retail investors continue to flock to financial markets to grab pieces of the pie -- the pie of rising markets.
The number of households executing trades rose more than 50% from a year earlier.
Profit at the San Francisco company registered $1.14 billion, or 57 cents a share, compared with $852 million, or 62 cents, in the year-earlier quarter.
Adjusted earnings per came in at 74 cents a share, up from 63 cents a year ago and beating the consensus estimate of 65 cents in a FactSet survey of analysts.
Revenue soared 60% from a year earlier to $4.18 billion, besting the analyst consensus of $4.11 billion.
Schwab shares recently traded at $58.96, up 0.4%. They have soared 76% in the six months through Friday.
Schwab CEO Walt Bettinger in a statement touted "record operating performance" and completion of the largest brokerage acquisition in history, TD Ameritrade, during the fourth quarter.
"[Client] engagement with the financial markets rose to record levels -- pro-forma combined new-to-firm households increased more than 175% compared to 2019, with the number of households placing trades up more than 50% year-over-year,” Bettinger said.
“Our clients also continued to set numerous single-day trading records, including a peak of 7.8 million trades on Nov. 9.”
Further, “the impact of covid-19, along with social and political turmoil, created an unprecedented combination of personal and macroeconomic challenges for our clients, employees and stockholders alike,” he said.
