Schwab Stock Falls Despite Improvement in February Metrics

Despite an improvement in monthly activity for February 2018 from the year-ago period, shares of The Charles Schwab Corporation SCHW declined nearly 2% following the release. Total client assets were $3.3 trillion at the end of the month, jumping 15% year over year.

Further, client assets receiving ongoing advisory services were $1.7 trillion, increasing 17% year over year. Also, Schwab’s average interest earning assets were $239.9 billion at February end, reflecting 11% rise from the prior-year month.

Notably, the company opened 138,000 new brokerage accounts in February, a jump of 22% from the prior-year month. Net new assets, through both existing and new clients totaled $21.3 billion, excluding outflows of $71.8 billion from certain mutual fund clearing services clients.

In fact, Schwab’s active brokerage accounts totaled 10.9 million at the end of the month, up 7% from the February 2017 level. Client’s banking accounts at the end of the reported month were 1.22 million, rising 9% from the year-ago period. Also, the number of retirement plan participants inched up 3% year over year to 1.58 million.

Consequently, the stock has rallied 36.8% over the last six months, outperforming 25.5% gain for the industry.

Schwab carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Performance of Other Investment Brokers

E*TRADE Financial ETFC reported a rise in Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs) for February 2018. According to its monthly market activity, the company’s DARTs came in at 330,121, up 5% from the prior month and 51% year over year.

Notably, derivatives comprised 31% of DARTs in February.

Interactive Brokers Group’s IBKR Electronic Brokerage segment reported a year-over-year increase in DARTs for February 2018. The segment deals with clearance and settlement of trades for individual and institutional clients globally.Total client DARTs came in at 1,020,000, increasing 50% from February 2017 and 13% from January 2018.

LPL Financial Holdings LPLA is likely to report its monthly activity for February 2018 next week.

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