Schwab Stock Up 2% As February Metrics Show Improvement

Shares of Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) gained 2% following the release of its monthly activity report for February 2019. Total client assets came in at $3.5 trillion, up 6% from the year-ago month and 2% from the prior month.

Client assets receiving ongoing advisory services were $1.8 trillion, up 7% year over year and 3% sequentially. Schwab’s average interest earning assets came in at $270.7 billion at the end of February, improving 13% year over year but declining 2% from January 2019.

Net new assets, through existing and new clients, totaled $18.3 billion, down 14% from February 2018 but up 21% from January 2019. New brokerage accounts opened by the company in February 2019 were down 17% year over year and 12% sequentially to 115,000.

Schwab’s active brokerage accounts totaled 11.7 million at the end of the reported month, up 7% from the year-ago month and 1% from January 2019. Further, client’s banking accounts were 1.3 million, rising 8% from February 2018 and stable sequentially. The number of retirement plan participants rose 7% year over year and were stable on a sequential basis at 1.7 million.

Shares of Schwab have rallied 11.3% over the past three months, underperforming 11.8% rise for the industry.

Schwab currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Performance of Other Investment Brokers

E*TRADE Financial (NASDAQ:ETFC) reported monthly market activity for February 2019. Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs) for the month were 298,395, up 6% from the previous month but down 10% year over year. Derivatives comprised 30% of DARTs in February.

Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (NYSE:IBKR) released its Electronic Brokerage segment’s performance metrics for February. The segment, which deals with the clearance and settlement of trades for individual and institutional clients globally, reported a year-over-year and sequential decrease in DARTs. Total client DARTs were 824,000, down 19% from February 2018 and 3% from January 2019.

Upcoming Release

LPL Financial Holdings (NASDAQ:LPLA) is likely to report monthly activity for February soon.

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