Charles Schwab Stock In Spotlight After Slew Of Price Target Hikes: Retail Stays Positive

Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Bedell raised the firm's price target on Charles Schwab to $105 from $98 while keeping a ‘Buy’ rating on the shares. Barclays, too, raised the firm's price target on the stock to $96 from $95 while keeping an ‘Overweight’ rating on the shares after the Q4 report.

Shares of Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW) were in the spotlight on Wednesday after Wall Street issued a slew of price target hikes for the financial services firm.

According to TheFly, Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Bedell raised the firm's price target on Charles Schwab to $105 from $98 while keeping a ‘Buy’ rating on the shares. The firm believes its fourth-quarter (Q4) results are relatively solid.

Barclays, too, raised the firm's price target on the stock to $96 from $95 while keeping an ‘Overweight’ rating on the shares after the Q4 report. The brokerage continues to see Schwab as "having one of the most compelling, and lowest risk, medium-term" earnings trajectories in the group.

Charles Schwab recently reported upbeat fourth-quarter results driven by record net inflows into the company’s Managed Investing Solutions.

The firm reported a 20% year-over-year (YoY) rise in its fourth-quarter (Q4) revenue to $5.33 billion compared to a Wall Street estimate of $5.12 billion. Earnings per share (EPS) stood at $1.01 versus an estimated $0.88. Adjusted net income surged 44% to $1.97 billion.

The company added $115 billion in core net new assets during the quarter, taking its asset gathering for the year to $367 billion. Total client assets increased 19% YoY to $10.10 trillion.
Schwab said new brokerage account openings rose 23% YoY to 1.1 million for the quarter, pushing total active accounts to 36.5 million.

Not surprisingly, Wells Fargo upgraded the stock to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal Weight’ with a price target of $93, up from $89. The firm noted that following a solid print and earnings call, the "bear case is weaker" and expects the "bull case to prevail.”

Truist and Argus, too, have raised their price targets on Charles Schwab to $90.

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment trended in the ‘bullish’ territory (70/100) compared to ‘extremely bullish’ a day ago. The move was accompanied by a ‘high’ message volume.

Recent Stocktwits users’ comments reflect a positive take on the stock.

Charles Schwab shares have gained over 9% year-to-date, and the stock has risen over 26% over the past year.

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