Charles Schwab (SCHW) Reports In-Line Q4 EPS
Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCHW) reported Q4 EPS of $0.24, in-line with the analyst estimate of $0.24. Revenue for the quarter came in at $1.55 billion versus the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion.
Business highlights for the fourth quarter (data as of quarter-end unless otherwise noted):
Investor Services
- New retail brokerage accounts for the quarter totaled approximately 146,000, down 5% from the year-earlier period; total accounts were 6.7 million as of December 31, 2014, up 2% year-over-year.
- Held planning conversations with approximately 24,000 clients. Approximately 109,000 planning conversations were held in 2014, up 8% from 2013.
- Launched a new Proposal Tool that allows our Financial Consultants to work more collaboratively with clients and prospects on their financial goals, providing a detailed comparison of the client’s current and proposed portfolios.
- Schwab Private Client™ increased its industry-leading asset allocation models from 5 to 26, further customizing client portfolios and supporting both total-return and income-generation approaches to wealth management.
- Schwab Trading Services™ hosted its first all-day educational event, reaching over 2,600 active traders with both in-person and online seminars that offered real-time trading insights and in-depth educational workshops.
- Expanded Schwab.com’s third-party research offering to include Morningstar® equity reports and ratings, sector information, and analyst insights, giving clients more choice and depth as they research investments, at no charge.
Advisor Services
- Hosted over 5,000 advisors, exhibitors, sponsors, and media for our best-attended IMPACT® conference ever. IMPACT is the largest and longest-running annual gathering of independent registered investment advisors. Schwab executives and industry leaders addressed product, technology, and practice management solutions for advisors.
- Released enhancements to PortfolioCenter®, Schwab’s desktop and cloud-based platform for portfolio management and reporting, that improve advisor efficiency and accuracy by providing richer data and shorter processing times.
- Launched trading integration with Tamarac, enabling advisors to send trades directly from Tamarac’s Advisor Xi® platform to Schwab Advisor Center® for streamlined processing.
- Announced Envestnet’s participation in the Schwab OpenView Gateway™, which will allow advisors to access data on Schwab Advisor Center in real-time from the Envestnet Advisor Suite™.
Products and Infrastructure
- For Charles Schwab Bank:
- Balance sheet assets = $111.2 billion, up 11% year-over-year.
- Outstanding mortgage and home equity loans = $11.1 billion.
- First mortgage originations through its loan program during the quarter = $741 million.
- Pledged Asset Line® balances = $2.3 billion.
- Delinquency, nonaccrual, and loss reserve ratios for Schwab Bank’s loan portfolio = 0.27%, 0.26% and 0.31%, respectively, at month-end December.
- Schwab Bank High Yield Investor Checking® accounts = 791,000, with $12.3 billion in balances.
- For Charles Schwab Investment Management:
- Schwab proprietary funds posted record net inflows of $12.3 billion in 2014. The largest share of net inflows was to Schwab ETFs™, which attracted $8.7 billion; Schwab Fundamental Index Mutual Funds also had record net inflows of $1.7 billion (Fundamental Index is a registered trademark of Research Affiliates LLC).
- Assets in Schwab ETFs™ totaled a record $26.9 billion at year-end, up almost 60% from December 2013.
- Total client assets invested in Schwab proprietary funds reached a record $267.5 billion, up 8% year-over-year.
- Client assets managed by Windhaven® totaled $16.2 billion, down 12% from the fourth quarter of 2013.
- Client assets managed by ThomasPartners® totaled $6.8 billion, up 51% from the fourth quarter of 2013.
- Opened new facilities in Denver and El Paso, helping improve the company’s efficiency by migrating existing operations and future growth to cost-effective areas.
For earnings history and earnings-related data on Charles Schwab (SCHW) click here.
